Tale of Three Boys
by anon33125
Summary: AU in which Minato is alive. Kakashi and Minato have many, many things to talk about, but somehow silence and teasing always win out. Not to mention there's a little blond boy who has laid claim to 100% of their attention. Eventual YonKaka... All characters owned by Kishimoto.
1. Naruto's Nightmare

A/N- Kind of a new direction for me. The idea for this story just kind of hit and I'm writing like a maniac. Inspired by checkerbloom's The Grey Crayon. So, there may be parts that don't make any sense or get kind of jumbled and wordy, but I'll go back and edit later, just wanted to put this out there are hear what you lovely people have to say! Enjoy!

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Naruto was screaming. Again. It must have been those nightmares coming back. Naruto had been getting them worse over the past couple years; Minato supposed it must have been something to do with the fact that he was growing up so fast.

Minato really didn't want to get out of bed right then. The bed felt empty and cold without its other usual occupant, so Minato had to roll himself into a cocoon to get the warmth just right. It was a hassle to keep getting in and out of his blankets, besides, he'd been comforting Naruto for almost three weeks straight with the nightmares now. He loved his son whole-heartedly, he really did. He just wished he knew how to get the nightmares to stop, obviously waking Naruto up every night wasn't doing the trick.

The screams from a little ways down the hall pierced straight into Minato's heart and he finally wrestled away his cocoon to run to his son.

"Shh, Naruto," Minato murmured softly, gently shaking his young son out of his nightmare. "I'm right here, you're all right."

Naruto's screams turned into sobs as he woke up and hid his face in his father's large sleep shirt.

"I-I cou-ldn'-t ge-et the bo-oy o-out," Naruto sniffled, taking breaths in the middle of his words as a crying toddler does.

Minato hummed gently, picking the small boy up so that his stance was a bit more comfortable. He rocked them both as he paced slowly around the room, bouncing Naruto lightly as he had when he was just an infant.

"Out of where, Naruto-kun?" Minato asked patiently as Naruto started to calm down.

"Out of the… the fire," the little blond responded, knuckling his eyes now that the tears had stopped. "There's always a boy trapped in the fire. I can never get him out."

"There's no fire now, babe," Minato responded, sounding grave as he turned so Naruto could see the bright night sky out of the window. "Just stars and the moon."

Naruto nodded as he sank his head back against his father's chest. He hated being held like a baby, he was nearly 5 now! But whenever his nightmare, watching the boy in the flames, came back, he wanted nothing else but to be held and comforted.

The pair stared out the window in a peaceful silence as Naruto got the last of his sniffles out. Minato's mind was far away though, seeing the night sky, he hoped his other precious person was doing alright. Minato sighed, thinking of the cold, lonely bed that awaited him, even if only for a few more hours. Naruto's thoughts seemed to be drifting as well.

"Dad, when will Kakashi be home?" Naruto asked, looking up at his father.

"Soon, babe, a couple more weeks," Minato frowned, he wasn't exactly sure when the silver-haired nin would be back, his mission did have a rather fluid time-line.

"Why do you have send him on such long missions?" Naruto pouted, making Minato's heart swell.

"He's one of the best shinobi in the village, Naruto," Minato squeezed his son, then turned away from the window and set the blond back on his bed. "You'll understand when you're older."

"I miss him," Naruto mumbled sleepily as he crawled back under his covers. Minato tucked him easily back in, kissed his forehead, and ruffled his hair.

"Me too, babe," He whispered, admitting it out loud as he left the room. "Me too."


	2. Minato's Morning

Minato never was able to get back to sleep after waking his son up from his nightmare. He had a nagging feeling that the boy in the fire was very directly related to the Kyuubi being sealed in the blond toddler, which made it that much more difficult to figure out how to get rid of the nightmares.

He ran around the kitchen, getting a bowl of cereal on the table for Naruto to eat while also preparing some sort of bento box for the boy's lunch. Naruto, for his part, seemed to have forgotten the night before and was chattering away about what Iruka-sensei was going to let them do today. Minato nodded and responded with single word phrases at all the right times as he shoved the box in Naruto's back-pack, deposited the now empty bowl in the sink, and scooted Naruto towards his shoes so they could be on their way to the academy.

A 2-4 month mission was way too long, he couldn't wait for Kakashi to get back home.

They lived far enough away from the center village that actually letting Naruto walk to school every day took way too long. So as soon as the toddler was dressed, shoes tied, and backpack on, Minato just grabbed his hand to teleport them.

"Kakashi never teleports with me," Naruto scowled at his father as they stood facing the academy, arriving at exactly the same time as all the other parents with their young ones.

"I'm sorry, Naruto-kun, but we were running… a bit late," Minato started to explain, but Naruto just scowled some more and took off into the academy. Minato sighed and dragged his hand through his hair, everything had seemed fine this morning, Naruto acting the same as always, but Minato could never seem to get everything right when Kakashi was on missions. Naruto hid it much more easily, but Minato knew he was affected as well. Minato pondered on this as he ran to the Hokage office and even as he sat behind his desk to get the hours of paperwork started for the day.

Ever since Kushina had died, Kakashi had stepped up tremendously. Minato himself was out of commission for several weeks while the best medics in the country worked to patch him up. Even once he was out of the hospital, he hadn't returned to his full health for at least a year. And Kakashi was there. A 14 year old boy, all legs and arms and that ridiculous hair; he would be up for Naruto's midnight bottle, at 2am when he would cry, and again at 5am when he decided that sleeping time was over. Kakashi did everything: the cooking, the cleaning, even the laundry; he only ever told Minato to focus on getting better, he would take care of everything else.

As Minato healed and took his Hokage responsibilities back from Sandaime, they fell into a routine. Kakashi would wake Naruto up and cook him breakfast, either the smell of the food or Naruto's racket would in turn wake Minato. He would join them in the kitchen for a few bites before heading to the Hokage Tower, then Kakashi would take Naruto to the academy, so the boy could play with his future classmates whose parents were also extremely busy ninja. Kakashi would go to his duties with ANBU, either taking only short missions or spending the majority of his time on guard duty, overseeing training, or writing team schematics for complex squad missions. As Naruto got older and Minato realized how much he needed Kakashi in the field, he started assigning the teen to progressively longer missions.

Kakashi said nothing outright, but Minato could tell he enjoyed being out in the field again. Playing nanny to an infant boy was not what Kakashi had signed up for, that had been Minato.

From the very beginning of their acquaintance, Minato and Kakashi were peas in a pod. Sure, Kakashi was a stuck up brat, way too smart for his own good, and hid a particularly dry, scintillating sense of humor, but Minato evened him out nicely by being personable, patient, and able to make anyone laugh. That's when all the tragedies hit: Sakumo's suicide, Obito's death, Rin's death, and countless others all casualties of the war. Kakashi had, understandably, withdrawn. Minato was practically the only person Kakashi was ever seen with, other than Gai, but nobody really counted that.

Those deaths had taken their toll on Minato as well, he found himself keeping his feelings from Kushina and instead, choosing to spend his time with his remaining student. When they married, he made sure they got a big enough house that Kakashi would have his own room there. Kushina had rolled her eyes, but she knew Kakashi held a special place in Minato's heart that could never be replaced.

As Minato fell in to the role of Hokage, more and more often, he would find himself getting home late and, rather than wake Kushina, sleep in Kakashi's room. It eased his anxiety that he could feel Kakashi's heat, his body twitching in sleep, and his steady heartbeat. Kakashi too, felt far more secure sleeping with his last living important person right by his side, where he could easily reach out to him, if he ever needed to. Neither one acknowledged how much he needed the other, but that's how their routine began.

Minato sighed and mussed up his hair as he tried to decipher the hieroglyphics on the mission report in from of him. Unfortunately, it happened to be an A-rank mission, not a D-rank one he could just check off and throw into the successfully completed pile. Minato resisted the urge to groan very loudly in frustration and instead threw his focus into something more productive.

"Jurou!" He shouted at his closed office doors.

"Hai, Hokagae-sama!" A slight, brown-haired, ruffled looking chuunin came into the room, holding yet another stack of papers.

"Has there been a bird from Kakashi?" Minato asked of his assistant.

"No, Hokage-sama, nothing yet. I checked this morning," Jurou responded complacently, setting the new stack of papers onto the freshly cleared side of Minato's desk. "Kakashi-san is one of the best in the village, Hokage-sama, I'm sure he'll complete his mission splendidly. Besides, he should have only been back this early if something had gone wrong."

Minato frowned more to himself than his assistant, it _had_ only been 2 months, and now he was acting like a clingy housewife, not the highest-ranking shinobi in the village like he was supposed to be. He rested his chin on his folded hands, staring straight at his new pile of mission reports and requests to go through.

A steaming mug of strong tea was set directly belong his nose and he couldn't stop his lips from quirking up into a smile.

"Thank you, Jurou," he said, letting the tea soothe his nerves.

"Everything will turn out well in the end, Hokage-sama," Jurou said lightly. "Now, I'll get these finished reports filed away, shall I?"

Minato smiled again warmly at him as he grabbed the finished stack and left the office. Jurou was the best assistant he could have ever asked for. Although, to be fair, he hadn't wanted an assistant when he first took office, but then he had become a single father and well, any help that came without pity was help to be admired and exceedingly grateful for.


	3. Delicious Decision

Several more weeks passed by with much of the same. Naruto's nightmares would not subside and Minato's sleep became ever more erratic, making his temper short. Naruto stopped pretending that he wasn't having nightmares and would often become irritable, while they both just tried to hold themselves together. Minato did everything in his power so he wouldn't have to teleport with Naruto to the academy again. Every so often, he would pick the boy up so he could run faster, but there was no more teleporting.

Naruto got into a couple fights in school, so Minato had to drag himself out of the office to apologize for his son's behavior and chastise him. Naruto, of course, got mad and slammed the door to his room, which he had never done before.

All of the event of these past few month were, Minato supposed, normal father-son relationships progressing beyond the stage where the son saw his father as a god of sorts. All the same, it made him want to do nothing but console a bottle of sake in some deep, dark corner where no one would ever find him.

Finally, by day 92 of Kakashi's mission, Minato was done with it. Hell, he was more than capable of being a single father without the help of a 20 year old, anti-social, infamous jounin. So, he got up at 6:30am, showered, dressed, and headed to the kitchen to scrounge up some breakfast.

"Up and at 'em, Naruto-kun!" Minato pushed into his son's room, leaving the door wide open so the aroma of pancakes would fill the air.

Naruto groaned and rolled over, pulling the blankets above his head.

"Come on, sleepy head, let's go!" Minato tugged at the blankets. "If you get up fast, we can walk the whole way to the academy! Maybe I'll even race you!" Minato accompanied this bribe with some tickling to Naruto's very ticklish side.

"Hey!" he protested quickly, kicking out his legs to get at his father, but not quite succeeding. Minato counted it as a win though, Naruto was giggling happily.

"Get dressed, Naruto-kun, then meet me in the kitchen," he said, bopping his son playfully on the head as soon as the boy had jumped out of his bed to escape the tickles.

"PANCAKES!" Naruto practically screeched as he flew into the kitchen. " _You_ made pancakes?" Naruto's big blue eyes narrowed suspiciously at his father.

"Hey," Minato pouted. "I can make pancakes. I even put chocolate chips in them."

Naruto grinned widely and dug into his breakfast with gusto, after drowning the pancakes in syrup. Minato watched him indulgently as he started on his own plate. They weren't quite as decadent as Kakashi's, nor did they melt in your mouth as easily, but they were plenty sugary and delicious in their own right. Naruto didn't seem to have any complaints.

As Minato put their dishes in the sink he glanced at the clock. 7:15, plenty of time for them to walk to the academy at Naruto's pace.

"Ready to go, bud?" He asked as Naruto dashed back into the room, backpack in his hands.

"Yeah, Dad! Come on!"

The two walked hand in hand as Naruto babbled on and on about the young Uchiha kid, a pink-haired girl, a loud blonde-haired girl, a chubby kid who always ate chips, and a lazy bum who watched the clouds. As they got to the academy, Naruto even permitted his father to kiss his forehead and tell him he loved him. Then, of course, Naruto rubbed the spot his father had kissed as though it had cooties and race into the academy, yelling behind him "Sure, BYE DAD!"

Needless to say, Minato arrived at the Hokage Tower in a significantly better mood then he had been since Kakashi left.

"Good morning, Hokage-sama!" Jurou greeted him pleasantly as he met Minato on the stairs to the Tower.

"Good morning, Jurou!" He responded just as nicely. "Anything more exciting than paperwork on my agenda today?"

Jurou looked down at the book in his arms.

"Well, you could check efficiency of the village, if you wanted, that's due within the next few weeks. Meet with hospital staff to hear their concerns, talk to the academy teachers, call in the ANBU captains, or check in with the jounin sensei," he listed off, consulting the schedule for due appointments.

"Hmm…"

"There's always paperwork to be done and the missions room to sit in on as well."

"…" Minato shot him a playful glare. Those were his least favorite jobs, unfortunately, they were also the most regular ones. Also the meetings with council members and the Elders. Those might even be worse, thankfully they only happened about once per month. "Let's go to the hospital."

Minato and Jurou worked through the day, gathering a list of all the small improvements that could be made throughout the village.

"You know any adjustments you make means more paperwork, right Hokage-sama?" Jurou asked, smirking lightly.

Minato resisted the urge to bat his chuunin assistant upside the head, the way he did when a certain silver-haired former student would tease him about paperwork. Instead he just chuckled.

"At least I can read my own handwriting. Half the battle with paperwork is trying to decipher elite jounin scribbles."

"Well, a productive day, nonetheless," Jurou said. "See you tomorrow, Hokage-sama!"

"Goodnight, Jurou! Thanks for all your help!" Minato watched him walk away before teleporting directly to the academy so as not to be late to pick up Naruto.

"Hey, bud! How was school today?" Minato asked, popping up beside the little blond boy sitting on his swing on the playground where students waited for their parents.

"Will Kakashi be home for my birthday?" Naruto responded with his own question, a dejected look on his face. Minato kneeled patiently down in front of him.

"Of course he will! His mission will be over before you know it!"

"That's what he said when he left. Kiba says that some people never come back from missions though," Naruto tried to hide a sniffle. "How do you know he's still coming back?"

"Naruto, look at me," Minato placed a hand on his son's knee. He'd hoped this conversation would happen later rather than sooner. "I am the Hokage, I know everything about the village and the missions all our shinobi are on. I would know if Kakashi wasn't coming back."

Minato paused to hook one finger under Naruto's chin. "And I would _tell_ you if he wasn't. Ok?"

Naruto nodded. "He's really going to be back for my birthday then?"

Minato did the quick calculation in his head, Naruto's birthday was still over a month away.

"Yup!" He quirked his lips into a smile and his eyes winked closed. "He wouldn't miss it for the world!" Unless he ran into complications with the mission, or was ambushed or killed…


	4. Something Strange

On the morning of day 103, something was off. Minato hadn't needed to pull himself out of his cocoon of blankets to wake Naruto from a nightmare, he realized as he woke to the sun streaming in through his window.

The second change was that there was a mixture of apple and cinnamon oatmeal in the breakfast cupboard. He would have noticed it there before, it was both his and Naruto's favorite type. Minato frowned at the suspicious container, but otherwise said nothing. Sometimes parents would bring a present for their Hokage to the academy and give it to Naruto to bring to him. Usually there would be a note and Naruto would leave it on the table, but sometimes there wasn't a note and Naruto might have just been feeling helpful yesterday afternoon.

The third change was when Naruto noticed something different in his routine without Kakashi. His backpack was already full and was perched on his chair by the closet, not on the floor by the door. He observed this when he bent over to pick up said backpack and it wasn't there. Perhaps his father had just gotten up early and packed him to be ready to go. Naruto shrugged it off, that was less time he needed to spend getting ready, so they could walk together again instead of running!

By noon Minato was absolutely sure someone was deliberately messing with him. Since he'd woken up, he'd caught five notes with inane messages (like _Top of the Morning, Steve_ and _Breakfast for two today, Tiffany_ and _By George! I think he's got it!_ ), the apple on his desk had changed color 3 times, that window he'd _sworn_ he'd closed a dozen times was still wide open, and his mug of strong black tea was always suspiciously full, no matter how much he drank of it or how long it sat cooling on his desk. He would find out who was messing with him by the end of the day. Come on, he was the Hokage!

Naruto, likewise, had finally figured out something strange was going on. He could swear someone had kept poking him all through Iruka-sensei's lecture, but every time he turned around as fast as he could, every other kid would be paying attention or asleep and snoring. Then, his pencil tip kept breaking, he'd always pressed hard on the paper, but usually he only broke one or two pencils in a day; today, he had gone through his whole case! He'd needed to ask Iruka-sensei to borrow on of his pencils! When he'd opened his bento box in the lunch room, an origami toad hopped out of it and landed on his lap, half of the lunch table had shouted and jumped up, causing a huge commotion, though thankfully Naruto hadn't gotten yelled at, one of the girls said it was a mouse under the table. So as Naruto waited for his dad to pick him up from school, he was using all of the ninja senses he'd been trying to acquire during his entire life to figure out who was teasing him so much.

"So, how was school today, Naruto-kun?" Minato asked pleasantly as he and Naruto started their journey home.

Naruto sighed, puzzled. "I think someone is playing tricks on me."

"What kind of tricks?" Minato jumped immediately into father-mode, ready to talk to the parent of any child who was being mean to his son.

"Nothing bad, Dad, just weird stuff," Naruto added quickly, sensing his father's mood swing.

"Huh," Minato frowned, thinking about how his own day had gone. He had even set Jurou to help him and they hadn't made any conclusions about who was messing with him. "What sort of stuff?"

"My pencils kept breaking and a frog jumped out of my bento box and my stuff was all moved around this morning and I couldn't finish my milk, it was always full!" Naruto ended on a frustrated shout, he loved milk, but you needed to finish your milk before the supervisor sensei would let you leave the lunch room and he couldn't finish his. Eventually the sensei just figured Naruto must be sick and let him leave. But it was the milk more than anything that had Minato convinced it was the same person who had been playing with his head all day.

"Hmm…. Well, I've had someone tricking me today too, Naruto-kun, we should just pretend it doesn't bother us and then he'll get bored and go away," Minato said, squeezing the boy's hand.

"But it DOES bother me! I don't like needing to borrow Iruka-sensei's pencils, he looks so sad at me…" Naruto grumbled determinedly.

"I know, babe, I'll track him down soon enough," Minato promised as they turned the corner to their small house.

The two of them had a small, uneventful dinner where nothing out of the ordinary occurred. It was almost as if their mystery prankster had heard their conversation earlier. Although, they were in a predominantly ninja village, so that was entirely possible. Minato cleaned up from their dinner as Naruto did his homework at the table, then they both headed to their bedrooms.

Minato froze as he opened the door to his. The window was open and there was someone sitting on the bed, knees tucked up under his chin, staring at the moon.

"You didn't have to wait up for me, you know," said the man on the bed, a smirk in his voice, as he didn't even turn around.

Naruto had seen his dad stop moving in the middle of the doorway and as soon as he heard that voice, he flew in the room past his father's legs.

"KAKASHI!" He screamed, pouncing on the young man on the bed.

Kakashi happily accepted the blond cannonball into his arms, squeezing him tightly.

"I missed you! I thought you were gonna miss my birthday! Kiba says some ninja never come home from missions but Sakura said that the really good ones always come home, then Shikamaru said that you were really smart so you'd probably come home, but Ino said that you'd probably just forgotten it was my birthday cuz you've got more important stuff to do and Chouji offered me some chips cuz they make you feel better when you're upset and –"

"I will never, ever forget your birthday, pipsqueak," Kakashi cut him off, pinching his nose gently between his gloved fingers.

"I'm not a pipsqueak!" Naruto argued resolutely. "I'm bigger than the last time you saw me!"

"Heh, maybe your hair is," Kakashi argued back, playfully, moving in to start tickling the boy into giggles enough that he stopped rambling.

Minato felt as though everything was right with the world again, Kakashi was home safe and sound, and the two most precious people in his life were tickling each other and laughing, rolling around on his bed.

"Alright, alright," Minato said eventually, pulling a squealing Naruto out of Kakashi's hands. "It's bedtime, bud, you've got school in the morning."

"5 more minutes?" He pleaded, looking at his dad with his big blue eyes open wide.

"Not tonight, Naruto-kun," Minato sighed. "Go brush your teeth now and Kakashi will come to tuck you in."

Naruto jumped up and raced out the door. Minato knew that bribe would work. Kakashi gave in to him easily, he would get his 5 more minutes once he was settled in his own bed with his pjs on. And Kakashi would be able to make him fall asleep after all the excitement, since Kakashi's stays had been getting shorter and shorter Naruto nearly always did exactly what he said.

"So, the mission went well?" Minato asked, once Naruto had left the room, removing his flak jacket and bending to undo the bindings on his legs as well.

"Yeah, I'll have the report on your desk tomorrow," he responded, his voice soft and even. Minato loved how gentle, how easy his voice was. It was a soft lilt, unless, of course he was angry, then his voice was incredibly dangerous. "I was working on it today."

"You mean when you weren't tormenting me and Naruto," Minato replied to that, his eyebrow raised as he shot an inquisitive glare at the young man.

Minato could see the shadow of a smirk through his mask and Kakashi's eye was bright with mirth.

"I couldn't come see you right away," he complained. "I had things to take care of first."

"Of course you did," Minato sighed, easing himself to lie back on the bed as well. "Were origami toads part of that? Or opening windows?"

"You know you would be disappointed if I just showed up without any introduction."

"I could never be disappointed if you just showed up anywhere, Kakashi," Minato said, turning to look at him. "We missed you a lot around here."

"Yeah," Kakashi sighed, lying flat on the bed next to Minato so that their arms brushed together. "I missed you guys too."

"It was good though, right?" Minato asked, tentatively. "A long, complex mission?"

"My teeth are brushed Dad! Come on Kakashi!" Naruto burst into the room again, running up to the side of the bed to grab Kakashi's arm and tug at him to get up.

"Alright, I'm getting up. Geez!" Kakashi grunted, pretending to be put out. He shot Minato a look with his one charcoal eye; it was a look Minato couldn't quite decipher as he watched his best friend lead out of the room by his son, but it was definitely a look that seemed to say they would have a chance to talk again later.

So, Minato got into his own sleeping clothes, brushed his teeth, and was completely and utterly exhausted by the time he climbed back into his bed. He almost went to make his cocoon again, but remembered just in time that someone else would be there soon.

It was more like 20 extra minutes that Naruto got, way more than his 5, but Kakashi thought it was more than worth it. Especially as he wandered back into Minato's room to find him dead asleep on one side of the bed. Kakashi peeled back the covers and snuggled up so that his back was flush with Minato's. His sensei, his friend, one of his most important people, and he was alive breathing right there next to him. Sure, the mission had been great, it was nice to be out there exerting himself physically and mentally, but this was better. This was home.


	5. Kakashi's Chaos

A/N - Thanks for the reviews, Zee, they warmed me to my toes :) I think that's pretty much what I'm getting at with this fic, I love Kakashi's balance between being forced to adult actions, like killing and torture, but still having childlike idiosyncrasies, like telling obvious white lies and prodding people to get reactions. So, I'm really glad you get that part and that I'm not trying to make the relationship seem creepy (though some people do take it to pedophile-y places...) and I hope you continue to enjoy! All reviews are appreciated! (except, you know, total bashing...) So, without further ado, I present chapter 5!

Waking up the next morning was absolute bliss for Minato. He had slept the entire night through and woke to birds chirping happily outside the window. He stretched and shifted so he could lie completely on his back, turning his head to look at the young man still completely passed out beside him.

Kakashi was considered an adult since he became a genin at 5 years old, not long after that, he was emotionally hardened into adulthood by his father's suicide. There were so many habits the boy had never formed, like uproarious curiosity about really uninteresting objects or clinging to the nearest adult when frightened or intimidated. He had always stood firmly on his own two feet. Until Obito's death, when he was an 11 year old jounin. All of a sudden, Kakashi needed that comfort of a parent/friend/adult to help him through the beginning of years of nightmares. That was when Minato started sleeping in the next room. By Rin's death, the nightmares had gotten so frequent for Kakashi that they had just begun sharing a bed most nights. Most children grow out of their habits, like Naruto and his thumb-sucking phase, but Kakashi had yet to grow out of this one. And, in all honesty, Minato wasn't entirely surprised, nor did he particularly mind, the company had always been a comfort to him as well.

It is generally accepted that all jounin are a little crazy. Minato was always seen as a rarity, being so firmly grounded and so even-headed. But losing two of his genin charges tore him apart inside; he had begun to realize that his version of crazy was this, a kind of dependence on the silver-haired orphan boy he'd taken under his wing almost 15 years ago. Marrying Kushina had all been a part of his duty to the village, his family, his legacy. He had loved her dearly, but more as a sister, the friend who could make him feel better after a terrible day, a part of his precious family. She had known all of this as well, it was something they'd talked about at length one not-completely-sober night, but more than anything she had wanted a family and Minato loved her and cared for her enough to help that become her reality. It had been many years now that he knew he was gay (Jiraiya had been _more_ than willing to help with his investigation of sexual orientation….). Her death had just been another that shook him to his core, making him feel even more unbalanced without an anchor.

Whatever he was though, and whatever his idiosyncrasies, Minato wasn't a complete idiot. He knew Kakashi had become his anchor, his rock, and he also knew it could only lead to heaps of trouble, especially now that the boy was in fact a very attractive (and sweet when he put his mind to it) young man.

He glanced once more at his companion; the 20 year old ANBU captain was snoring lightly while Minato considered these things. Kakashi really was one of a kind, so much passion hidden under such an aloof exterior. Minato sighed quietly and shook himself internally, then glanced up at the clock. 6:30am, apparently even new habits die hard.

He briefly considered nudging Kakashi to see if he was on the verge of waking, but as another soft sleep sigh came out through young man's nose, he immediately thought better of it. He rolled himself as quietly and motionlessly as he could off the bed so as not to wake the jounin up and then practically tiptoed from the room.

Minato rapped lightly on Naruto's door before peeking his head in. Naruto was sitting up sleepily, rubbing at his eyes and mussing up his already messy blond hair.

"Good morning, sunshine," Minato greeted his son teasingly. The boy looked at him confusedly for a minute.

"I thought Kakashi came home last night," he said softly. "It was a dream?" A frown permeated his young features.

"No, babe, Kakashi's home, he's just tired from his mission. He'll be back to making you breakfast tomorrow."

"Oh, good!" Naruto grinned, his attitude lifted within seconds, and then he jumped from his bed to get dressed.

"I'll have some cereal ready for us downstairs," Minato said, turning away to close the door behind him.

"Maybe Kakashi will be awake to walk to school with us!" He heard Naruto exclaim quietly, not sure whether it was directed towards him or just Naruto talking to himself. Either way, it warmed his heart a little at the special bond Kakashi and Naruto shared.

Minato took a couple bowls from the cabinet and, now that he knew the oatmeal was from Kakashi, put two scoops into each bowl and started boiling a large pot of water. He set out two of the big mugs and one smaller glass of orange juice, setting tea bags in the mugs, just in case Kakashi decided to come downstairs. Kakashi was far too good of a ninja not to be woken up by Naruto racing about the house, but it was just as likely the copy nin would choose to roll over and go back to sleep.

Naruto raced into the kitchen just as Minato poured the water into their bowls of oatmeal.

"Ooooo, what kind?" Naruto asked excitedly as he jumped up onto the stool by the counter.

"Apples and cinnamon," Minato replied, smirking as Naruto's gleeful expression only became brighter. He ruffled the boy's hair affectionately. "Careful not to burn your tongue though, bud."

Minato continued to stand on the opposite side of the counter to eat his own breakfast slowly as it cooled.

Kakashi had most definitely woken up as Minato had tried to slip so carefully out of the room. He'd had to be hypertensive and aware when sleeping for the entire duration of his 3 and a half month mission, that wasn't something he could easily turn on and off. He'd stayed in bed a while longer, trying to will himself back to sleep under the blankets that reeked of Minato, but the warmth he was accustomed to being next to him was fading fast. He frowned lightly and tried to bundle the blankets a little tighter around himself, but to no avail. Besides, Naruto was bouncing around his bedroom to get ready for school: knocking over a stack of books, drawers squeaking open and being slammed shut, his backpack being unzipped and rezipped up over and over again….

Grumbling some more, Kakashi resigned himself to the fact that he was not getting back to sleep with his favorite toddler still in the house, so he pushed the blankets back and made himself get up.

Floating soundlessly down the stairs, he was greeted to a warm sight of Minato and Naruto enjoying the oatmeal he'd brought back from Cloud Country with him. He smiled even bigger at the second mug strong black tea steaming away on the counter. He waited until both blonds had the attention focused on their bowls before gliding over to that mug and snatching it up with both hands.

Minato gasped in shock at the decadent sigh that had been emitted from the corner behind him. Naruto glanced up from his breakfast and gave a cheeky, mouth full of food, grin.

"Geez, Kakashi, you don't always have to be so silent," Minato muttered, recovering from his initial shock at realizing they weren't alone.

"Mmm," Kakashi responded silkily, more focused on the mug in his hands than on Minato. "But, where would the fun in that be?"

Naruto giggled. "Hey, nii-san, are going to walk to school with us?"

Kakashi blushed lightly, as he usually did whenever the boy referred to him as a blood-relative. But, he still couldn't help pretending to be put out by the request.

"I suppose," he sighed gustily before taking another sip of his delicious tea.

"You don't have to," Minato said lightly, ignoring Naruto's happy dance at Kakashi's response. "You could stay here and get some more sleep. You still look pretty beat."

"Maa," Kakashi shrugged. "I'll take a nap later." He took another sip of his tea, watching Minato carefully, with an amused glint in his eye.

"I'm finished!" Naruto said, happily clanging his spoon down on the counter. "Can we go now?"

"Sure, sure, just let me clean up first bud," Minato responded hastily, taking the two empty bowls to put in the sink and draining the rest of his tea. "Why don't you put your shoes on?"

"And get dressed," Kakashi added.

"He is dressed," Minato frowned, glancing between his son and Kakashi.

"But you're not," Kakashi quipped, taking another calm sip of tea as Minato's eyes widened comically, looking down at his sleep-rumpled pajamas.

Naruto erupted into laughter as Minato sprinted from the kitchen, Kakashi just smirked to himself. He may have been half asleep, but he totally noticed that Minato had left the room way too quickly to have managed getting dressed and he wasn't feeling quite so cruel as to let the Hokage walk all over the village in a wrinkled neon green shirt with matching toad-patterned pants.

"Come on, kiddo, let's get these shoes on before your dad gets back down," Kakashi said, putting his half-empty mug on the counter. "Only if you want to play a joke on him."

Naruto's sandals were on his feet at lightning speed.

"What kind of joke?" He asked, enraptured by Kakashi's 'cause-shit' face. Kakashi just placed one finger over his masked lips and held out his other hand to Naruto. The young boy grabbed it and held tight.

"What are we going to do here?" Naruto asked, dumbfounded as he glanced around the Hokage's office.

Kakashi just reached into the boy's backpack and pulled out a box.

"Where did you get that from?!" Naruto exclaimed, eyes widening.

"I put it there yesterday morning," Kakashi said, batting him playfully upside the head. He opened the box and showed Naruto what was inside. There were hundreds of origami frogs. "Here, if you set them up like this," Kakashi folded the back end of one of the frogs in slightly, so that it looked as though it were sitting. "Then it will jump as soon as the fold releases."

"That's what you put in my lunch!" Naruto exclaimed, not angry so much as excited that he was being let in on the secret.

"Yup, if you put one under a lid, it will jump as soon as the lid is opened," he responded cheerfully. "Now we only have a couple of minutes before your dad will be back downstairs. We'll each hide half of them."

Naruto jumped excitedly and ran around the office trying to find the best places to put the frogs so they would scare his father. Kakashi already had several places in mind, so his half of the frogs were hidden within seconds.

"I'm done!" Naruto said, rushing back to meet Kakashi in the center of the room.

"About time too," Kakashi teased gently, ruffling the boy's hair. "Ok, we can't act like anything happened, right?"

Naruto took a deep breath, tried to restrain his giggles, and nodded very seriously.

"Good," Kakashi responded, easily taking the boy's hand back and teleporting them back to the house.

"Ok, ok, I'm dressed now," Minato's voice came down the stairs nanoseconds before the man himself appeared at the doorway.

"Took you long enough," Kakashi deadpanned, opening the door and stepping outside.

"Yeah, come on, Dad," Naruto sighed, following Kakashi. "Iruka-sensei yells when I'm late."

Minato huffed as he turned to close the door behind them before they started on their journey. He completely missed the high-five that took place behind his back between the blond boy and the silver-haired teen.


	6. Fledgling Fears

"So, how was your day?" Kakashi asked innocently as he grilled fish for dinner.

"…" Minato just glared, not dignifying the question with a response.

"I brought my report to the missions desk on time today," Kakashi continued, acting oblivious to the death glare he was receiving. "Genma was so shocked he dropped his senbon."

Minato dropped his head onto his arms on the counter.

"Asuma and Kurenai are dating," Kakashi said, draining some of the grease out of the pan.

"Everyone knows that," Minato mumbled, breaking his silence.

Kakashi just smirked in response, flipping the fish neatly onto the platter to set in the center of the table.

"Dinner's ready?!" Naruto skidded into the kitchen, his nose and ears both telling him it was time to appear.

"Yup! Let's get the table set up," Kakashi responded, handing Naruto a small stack of plates to bring out while grabbing the food that he would carry out himself.

Minato watched the two of them go, torn between how sweet it was that they got along so well and how much they had totally messed up his day. He'd had origami frogs jumping out at him from every crack and crevice of his office the entire day. Somehow, they'd even gotten into the pockets of his Hokage robes and jumped out during the middle of an important council meeting, where they were _already_ telling him he was still too immature for the responsibilities of being Hokage. Not to mention the frogs interrupted an ANBU briefing and Jurou hadn't been able to eradicate them before the stone-faced, no-nonsense torture specialist came in to relay very important information they'd finally gained from a captive spy.

He guessed it wasn't really the end of the world or anything, but he couldn't shake the feeling that today he'd felt older than he had in a long time. And for him, that _did_ feel a little like the end of the world.

"Minato-sensei?" Kakashi's voice interrupted Minato's musings as he glanced at the silver-haired nin.

"Hmm?" he responded, still feeling rather despondent.

"We won't eat until you join us."

"Ah, right," he sighed, scratching his head and following Kakashi back out to the table.

The three ate quietly for a while. Naruto seemed especially interested in his food and unusually silent for his normally boisterous dinner talk.

"I'm sorry I yelled," Minato said finally, breaking the quiet. He had been extremely frustrated with how his day had gone and as soon as he'd seen Naruto's mischievous face asking if anything out of the ordinary had happened in the office that day, he'd just snapped. The rest of the afternoon he'd spent sulking in his room while Kakashi helped Naruto with homework before starting on dinner. By the time he'd come downstairs everything was quiet in that 'let's try not to piss off Minato anymore' kind of way.

"I'm sorry we played a trick on you, Daddy," Naruto sniffled quietly.

"It's ok, bud," Minato smiled softly across the table. "It just wasn't a good day for it."

Kakashi said nothing but continued eating his food.

"How was school today, Naruto-kun?" Minato asked, trying to make amends with his son and ignoring Kakashi's conspicuous lack of response.

"We got to practice shuriken throwing today," he smiled, brightening up. "We lined up and threw them at tree targets, but Kiba missed and almost hit Shino, so Iruka-sensei got mad and yelled and made us all go back inside."

Minato chuckled, at least it hadn't been Naruto aiming for Sasuke with the dull shuriken again. He scraped the rest of his food off his plate and leaned back in his chair. "Dinner was delicious tonight, thank you Kakashi."

"It was nothing," Kakashi said politely before he stood and started taking dishes back into the kitchen to start washing. Minato and Naruto both got up to help clear the table.

"It's a shower night tonight, Naruto-kun, you ready?" Minato ruffled Naruto's hair as he put the last of the dishes into the sink. Kakashi mumbled a quiet 'thanks' but already was up to his elbows in steaming hot water and dish soap.

"Yeah," Naruto sighed as he and Minato trudged back up the stairs.

Kakashi remained at the sink, systematically scrubbing each pan and plate before running the scalding water back over to rinse each of the sudsy ones. He nearly missed the telltale sounds of Minato re-entering the kitchen.

"I'm sorry about the frogs," Kakashi said quietly, not looking up from his dishes. "I have no excuses."

"You don't need an excuse, Kashi," Minato murmured, perching on one of the bar stools to start drying dishes and putting them away. "You act more like a child now when you're with Naruto than you ever did when you were actually a kid."

"I don't mean to act like a child," he responded slightly defensive.

"It's ok, I'm glad you do. It's like getting a second chance at having a childhood, you need more fun in your life."

"Not if it upsets you so much."

"It's not so much the frogs that upset me," Minato admitted, albeit reluctantly.

"How do you mean?" Kakashi turned to look at him full on.

"Well, all of it….. it just…. Everyone's reactions…" Minato paused, not really believing how silly he felt acknowledging this. "They made me feel old. Like I care and need to care about what they think."

Kakashi snorted at this. "You're not old, Sensei. You care because you're the Hokage, you represent the best of the village, that's why you care what they think."

"I never used to," he frowned. "Not like this."

Kakashi thought on that for a few minutes as he finished the last plate, turned off the water, and dried his hands on one of the dish towels hanging from the oven door. He tried not to focus on how wrinkly washing the dishes made his hands look, he glowered at them briefly before turning his attention back to Minato.

"We were at the end of a war, you knew exactly what you had to do and that every decision you made was for the best for Konoha," Kakashi began, leaning against the sink as Minato continued drying and putting dishes away. "Now it's all politics, we're in relative peace and they want what they want. You're second-guessing everything because you're just not as confident that they're wrong. Or, maybe they're not wrong. How would you know? You've never run a hidden village before."

Slowly Minato nodded, listening and thinking about this idea. It was true, he wasn't quite as confident. He didn't _know_ what would make the village better, not like he had known how to make and keep peace treaties to stop the war.

"You care now about what they think because it matters more now. They've done this before, or at least, they've lived through it," Kakashi continued, moving away from the counter to take a pan out of Minato's hands. "Why don't you pay a visit to Sandaime tomorrow? Or later this week? You know he'd help you through this and he's not as demanding as the council."

"Yeah," Minato sighed, relinquishing his hold on the pan and sinking back onto his stool. His eyes glazed over for a few minutes. His eyes brightened back up and fixed on Kakashi, who was watching him. "When did you get so smart, brat?"

"I have always been this smart," Kakashi gave a long-suffering sigh, but his eye glittered in a way that showed he was teasing. "I've been pondering why you seem so much more stressed out now than you were when I left a few months ago. It's been getting worse."

"It always gets worse when you're gone," Minato let himself admit almost too quiet for Kakashi to hear.

"So why do you keep sending me away?" Kakashi asked, just as softly, tilting his head to search Minato's face for an answer.

"Dad! Kakashi! Can I get a story tonight?!" Naruto's voice echoed down from upstairs. Both men flinched slightly, breaking them out of conversation. Minato brushed some imaginary dirt off his pants as he stood.

"I'll go give him one, you should get to sleep early. I highly doubt you napped today," Minato accused lightly.

"I had things to do," Kakashi replied, brushing it off as he followed Minato up to Naruto's room. "Goodnight, pipsqueak!" He said, peeking his head around the door.

"I'm not a pipsqueak, nii-san!" Naruto responded indignantly. Kakashi blushed lightly and came into to the room to kiss Naruto's forehead and ruffle his hair.

"I'll see you in the morning, Naruto-kun. No nightmares, tonight, right?"

"Right," Naruto responded sincerely. "Night, Kakashi!"

"Ok," Minato said, tucking Naruto comfortably into his blankets before sitting on the edge of the bed. "What kind of story do you want?"

"One about ninja! And rescuing a princess! Or pirates! And kidnapping a princess!"

"Haha, ok, lots of ideas," Minato smiled affectionately at his son, practically bouncing in his bed. "Once upon a time, on the great sea of the West, there was a pirate with a great secret…."


	7. An ANBU's Activites

A/N - Zee and tineyninja, thanks for the reviews :D you guys are awesome and totally make me smile! This chap is a bit more Kakashi-centric, and within the next couple chapters, we'll get those two to sit down and actually have a real conversation. Hopefully... ;) Enjoy!

Kakashi blearily rubbed his eyes as he tried to stay focused on the forest from his perch on top of the guard tower. He really should have spent his entire first day home sleeping instead of playing pranks on Naruto and Minato, but they were both far too adorable for him to resist. So, he dealt with the tiredness. He had been listening in to the bland conversation of the chunnin watchers inside the tower, but they were doing nothing better than gossiping about their girlfriends, so he'd tuned them out a few hours ago.

Personally, Kakashi felt that having an ANBU guard on top of the tower while there was a group of perfectly capable chuunin and jounin guards inside the tower was a bit redundant. If the watch group really needed ANBU, they could always just send one of the birds constantly flying around the tower. It had definitely been necessary for the protection of the village during the war, but now in peacetime it was borderline wasting resources. He knew he should bring it up with Minato, he was just being stubborn with himself, trying not to take away yet another duty that could keep him in the village. He also knew Minato kept sending him on long missions because he was _needed_ , not because he was sick of him, but still, it tugged just a little too strongly at the wrong places in his heart.

He did love being ANBU though, it gave him a purpose. He'd been raised as a tool for his village, he was an exceptional killing machine and he'd had his heart hardened to the point where really not too many things touched him that deeply. ANBU operatives were the people he felt most comfortable around, some of them were even more screwed up than him and that was comforting. Nevertheless, there were still that majority who just thought of him as a cold-blooded friend killer, but nothing was perfect. Well, almost nothing. But Kakashi was going to resolutely keep his mind from going _there_ , to him.

Kakashi kept a quiet groan to himself as he shifted his position ever so slightly to relieve a new cramp popping up in his leg. He'd been crouched on the roof for almost 4 hours now, unmoving. In a few minutes, he'd do a quick sweep of the forest and by then his replacement would be up. He stretched his senses out to be sure the guards below him were sufficiently distracted, then he disappeared from the roof of the tower.

"Welcome back, Senpai," a teen with long, brown hair in a cat mask greeted him warmly.

"Maa, thanks, Tenzo," he responded, impishly shouldering his kohai out of the way of his locker.

"You shouldn't keep using our names so carelessly, Senpai," came the voice of likewise young girl with purple hair that barely reached her shoulders.

"We're in the locker room, Yugao," Tenzo responded, sharper than he'd actually meant it. "We'll see each other without our masks in like a minute."

Yugao, in response, removed her own decorated mask enough so that she could stick her tongue out at Tenzo. Kakashi pretended to ignore the exchange between his younger comrades, those two fought whenever they had the chance and he knew exactly the reason why; Kakashi just refused to get caught up in it when he really had no business being involved. Love triangles were so not his thing.

"You both really ought to find a new senpai, you know, I'm not worth it," he muttered, banging his locker closed as he finished changing out of his ANBU uniform.

They stopped arguing about whatever it was they'd been arguing about when Kakashi tuned them out and stared at him, open-mouthed that after all these years he _still_ felt that way. Kakashi just shot them a cheerful eye smile and a two fingered salute before disappearing from the locker room.

"ETERNAL RIVAL! YOU HAVE RETURNED FROM YOUR MISSION FULL OF HEALTH AND YOUTHFUL EXUBERANCE!"

"Hey, Gai," Kakashi sighed, happy for the mask filtering out the dust bath that usually came accompanied with Gai's appearance, running circles around him.

"I CHALLENGE YOU TO A BATTLE!" Gai grinned, blinding teeth and all, pointing a finger directly in Kakashi's face.

Kakashi stood silent for a minute, half in thought and half just to make Gai stand there like an idiot before he would inevitably get frustrated and start crying manly tears or something. He briefly considered his options, Minato was probably actually trying to get paperwork done and Naruto still had classes until 4, which gave Kakashi 3 hours and really nothing important to do other than train. And really, what better training could he ask for than beating Gai at a ridiculous challenge?

"What's the match, then?" He muttered, feigning indifference.

"A TAIJUTSU MATCH! I MUST REDEEM MY PREVIOUS LOSS!" Gai grinned, practically jumping in excitement that Kakashi had agreed to a rival challenge.

"Alright, let's go."

2 hours later had Kakashi practically dragging a physically exhausted Gai home. He reached his friend's apartment, deactivated the wards, and dumped him unceremoniously on his couch.

"A worthy battle, indeed, my rival," Gai murmured sleepily as he picked himself up into a sitting position.

"You really didn't need to start opening Gates," Kakashi grumbled back at him as he filled a large glass of water and pulled Gai's ice packs out of the freezer.

"Of course I did!" He argued indignantly, trying to get up but failing. "I wanted to show you my progress!"

"Hnnn…"

Gai guzzled down half the glass of water while Kakashi wrapped the ice packs around his shins, lower back, and upper arms. Gai hissed slightly at the pain and relief of well-used muscles finally going numb.

"When's your next mission?" Gai asked as Kakashi settled back on the couch with his own glass of water.

"Dunno yet, I'm sure Minato will have one soon," he watched the ice melt in his water.

"If you want to get over your crush on him, you should probably stop calling him Minato, he's Sensei or Hokage-sama," Gai grunted as he gave up getting comfortable on the couch and let himself fall to lie on the floor.

"He punched me once for calling him Hokage-sama," Kakashi said, smiling a little at the memory. "And I always call him Sensei to his face."

"That's not what I meant," Gai shot him a meaningful look. Kakashi just shrugged in response.

"Nothing will ever come of it anyway, so I don't see what the harm is in calling him by his name."

"It will hurt you, Kakashi, it will break your heart."

"Maa, I don't have much of a heart left."

"Now, we both know THAT is NOT true," Gai sat up and straight out glared at Kakashi for that comment. Kakashi was his greatest friend and most important role model, but he knew more than anyone how depressed and emotional the silver-haired jounin could get. In fact, the main reason he'd won his first of their rivalry battles had been the day of Minato and Kushina's wedding, when Kakashi got terribly disheartened that Minato would forget all about him and stop training with him and start blaming him for Obito and Rin's deaths the way he blamed himself, among other worries. All of this, of course, Gai only found out several years later when the two shared a bottle of sake for other reasons…. But, back to the point, he knew Kakashi had been pining for Minato for about 5 years, ever since he had been so, so close to losing him as well and ever since he also fell in (a much more paternal and brotherly) love with a certain blond infant.

"Yeah, yeah," Kakashi brushed the comment aside, pretending he didn't really mean anything by it. "On that note, I said I would pick Naruto up from the academy this afternoon."

"We shall battle again another day, my rival!" Gai said, enthusiasm still intact as he fell backwards onto the floor again. Kakashi couldn't hold back a snort, but picked up a cushion from the couch and squeezed it under Gai's head before he thunked it on the floor again.


	8. Potential Plans

"Chouji's having a big sleepover party this weekend! Can I go?!" Naruto bounced happily into the living room as soon as he heard Minato enter the house. Minato's lipe parted in surprise for a brief moment as he looked at Kakashi.

"He asked me on the way home from school," the copy nin said, shrugging and taking a sip from the ever-present mug of tea in his hands. "I told him he would have to talk to you. The entire class was gossiping about it though, so I'm sure it's real."

"Of course it's real, Kakashi-baka!" Naruto sighed, exasperated.

"Don't call Kakashi an idiot, Naruto," Minato admonished. "But yes, I suppose you can go. I'll come up with something to give the Akimichis."

"Thanks, Dad! We're all gonna walk to their compound after school on Friday!" Naruto jumped excitedly and hugged his father tightly before dashing back up to his room to presumably get his homework.

Kakashi finished his tea and rinsed the mug out before turning back to Minato, who had removed his Hokage robes and made his way to the stool by the counter.

"So, are you going to make any plans for a Naruto-free weekend?" He asked, a little hesitantly.

"Hmm," Minato pretended to contemplate his answer. "I _had_ considered a raging party with booze and strippers, but I think that may impact my image as a respectable Hokage."

Kakashi chuckled a little at that, leaning his elbows on the counter slightly so that his hands hung loosely between his chest and the countertop.

"Were you respectable to begin with?" He teased warmly, eye sparkling.

"I do believe that's up for debate," Minato murmured, bright blue eyes entranced by that one inky black orb.

Without either one realizing it, their faces were merely inches apart. Minato's eyes flickered, breaking their bubble ever so slightly, to glance at Kakashi's unmasked lips, unsure when the mask came down. But, it was long enough for him to remember where they were and who they both were. This was he _student_ , albeit an ex-student now ANBU captain, but still, he'd watched the kid grow up. And Minato himself was _old_ , not tragically so, but he had a _5 year old son_ and an entire village watching _every move he made_.

Minato stood hastily from the stool and moved further into the kitchen, under the pretense of searching out something to eat.

"What about you, Kakashi? Any friends you want to hang out with, rather than an old man and his kid?" Minato didn't dare glance back to see the look on Kakashi's face or let Kakashi see the grimace of pain on his own face as he realized Kakashi probably had better people to spend his free time with.

"You're not old, Sensei," Kakashi muttered, feeling as though he had been rejected by an unasked question. His face, if Minato had turned around, would have seemed almost desolate, before the mask was quickly yanked back up over his nose. "As to friends, not really. I'm sure they'll all have their own plans."

Not entirely a lie, not that he was the type of person to ask his acquaintances to hang out anyway… Besides, he'd already promised Tenzo they would train together on Saturday and Gai had a tendency to show up and occupy large spans of time as well. What Kakashi really wanted though, was a nice Naruto-free (interruption-free) evening to eat a romantic dinner with his best friend, then perhaps fall asleep watching a movie together.

"And anyway," Kakashi continued, as Minato finally turned back to look at him. "I wanted to make some different sushi combinations, which do not include solely shrimp, cucumber, and white rice."

Minato chuckled at that, taking rice noodles out of the cabinet that they could have for dinner that night.

"Well, if you don't feel like cooking and you really don't have any plans, perhaps we could go out for sushi? There's that new restaurant by the civilian market that I've been wanting to try," Minato hesitated slightly; he wanted to make sure Kakashi wasn't uncomfortable about this. The last time they'd eaten dinner at a restaurant alone together had been before the Kyuubi attack. "My treat, part of a long overdue thank you for all the help you've given me and Naruto."

"That would be nice," Kakashi murmured, staring lost in thought at the pot of water he'd just set on the stove to boil. But, Minato didn't catch his response as Naruto flung himself into the kitchen.

"Hey, hey! Who knows why shuriken can't be your only weapon?" He asked, waving his homework in the air before jumping up to the counter, his confusion clearly written in his wrinkled eyebrows.

"I'm sure Iruka-sensei explained this in his lecture, Naruto-kun," Minato chuckled. "Why do you think just having shuriken isn't enough?"

"I don't know! Because you'd need lots and lots of them to kill someone?" He grumbled, upset that he wasn't just going to get the clear-cut answer.

"Well, why do you need lots of shuriken to kill someone, but only one kunai could do it?" Kakashi asked him, pouring a mixture of spices into the pot of water.

Naruto frowned at his paper, rereading the question and thinking, trying to decipher if the answer was hidden in between the lines.

"Well, shuriken are lighter than kunai, so they can't go as deep, right?" He wondered, glancing up at his father.

"That's one reason," Minato nodded, taking out a cutting board and some vegetables to put into the soup Kakashi was working on.

"Oh! Iruka-sensei said something about how shuriken are used to disable your attacker or get them away from their weapons, but kunai are used to attack. So, I guess you can't only have shuriken because then you wouldn't ever be able to kill any enemies?" Naruto concluded, glancing up at his helpers.

"Hmm, maybe. What do you think, Kashi?" Minato asked.

"I suppose that does make sense. If you were out on a mission, you would need more than merely something to distract enemy ninja," he responded carefully. He didn't need to confuse Naruto any more by saying that some nin can kill with shuriken or that adding chakra nature manipulation can actually make shuriken the most convenient, deadliest weapon in your arsenal... The kid had years to learn those things.

"Alright!" Naruto scribbled his answer down on his paper. "I'm done with my homework! Can I pack for Chouji's sleepover?"

"Put everything in a pile on your bed, I'll come in to check and put it in your bag when you're done," Minato said, planting a kiss on his son's forehead so as not to dirty his hands while handling their food.

"So, a sushi dinner, then maybe some shogi tomorrow night?" Kakashi asked, wanting to confirm their plans.

"Sure, that sounds good," Minato grinned, excited at the prospect of spending an entire night alone with his best friend. "I'll stop by the market a get a decent bottle of sake we can share, too."

"Really?" Kakashi nearly dropped the spoon into the pot of soup.

"Sure, you can't play a good game of shogi without sake," he replied, a bit confused as to why Kakashi seemed so shocked he'd offered to get alcohol involved.

"We used to make do just fine without it."

"Ah, but you always won. We just have to get you drunk, then I'll have a fighting chance!"

"I'm not getting drunk so you can have your way with me, Sensei," Kakashi pouted outwardly, but on the inside his stomach was filled with butterflies, that sounded like far too much fun.

Minato was spared the necessity of a response as Naruto appeared back in the kitchen.

"Time for dinner?!" He asked excitedly, grabbed the three bowls Minato had set on the counter and bringing them out to the table.

"Yup," Kakashi said. "Let's eat!"

Minato couldn't help but notice the way the steam from the soup had tinged Kakashi's cheeks a bright pink. Ugh, their plans for tomorrow night might actually have been a terrible idea.


	9. Nervous Nellies

A/N - Again, thanks for the reviews, loves ;) they really do help me keep going. I was having a very un-inspiring night, so you were thisclose to not getting an update. Anyway, this is just part 1 of the Kakashi and Minato Date Night (which will probably be just two chapters) and I'll also probably edit and change parts of it once a bit more inspiration hits, so stay with me! It'll get better again :) Enjoy!

Kakashi found himself barely able to concentrate on anything the entire day Friday. He'd practically been skipping as he and Naruto had walked to the academy. As 10am found him humming a long-forgotten love tune while drawing up an assassination plan for an S-ranked missing nin from the Bingo Book (who'd been popping up far too often far too close to Konoha for comfort), Kakashi knew there was something seriously wrong with him. Rather than cause him to lose himself in insane training though, as that comprehension might once have brought him to, the infamous copy nin just chuckled and changed his tune to a jaunty whistle. Yeah, he was in deep.

By 1pm, Kakashi couldn't even sit still long enough _read_ a mission briefing, never mind draw up the schematics for a 6 man ANBU squad response; so he coerced both Tenzo and Yugao into an incredibly unevenly matched sparring battle against him. Now, this is something a ninja should never, ever do; it must be written in the rule book of shinobi how-to's somewhere: Never use advanced ninjutsu sparring as a method of working out pent-up, nervous energy. It's really just asking for trouble.

Neither Tenzo nor Yugao were able to so much as touch Kakashi; he was practically flying away from their attacks, moving as though limbless through the trees. He massacred Tenzo's entire wood-clone army with a single delightful burst of chidori and parrying against Yugao's moon dance looked as though he were preforming a moving art piece he'd rehearsed for weeks. Kakashi had shadow clones bursting out of the ground to pull on Tenzo's ankles, causing him to fall more than once, while Yugao was confined to the very tops of the trees as four very energetic nin-dogs pursued her. Both of Kakashi's opponents were gasping for breath, shooting each other glances that quite clearly stated they were going to sedate this masochist the minute they got their hands on him.

Minato's day was, well, not quite so entertaining. His leg kept bouncing as he scrutinized mission report after mission request until his eyes were sore. He'd gone through four cups of soothing, stress-relief tea and was still as nervous as though it was his first date ever. And it wasn't even a date! He struggled to pay attention to his diplomatic team's reports about the problems in the other four villages, though he did dutifully take notes so he'd be able to read them over tomorrow when he didn't feel like a hormonal teenager.

After his fifth trip to the bathroom that day, Jurou finally came in to file away the end of the day reports, thus letting Minato know he could _finally_ go home without looking like a twat who left work early on a Friday simply because he could.

The only problem was, as soon as Minato left the office, he had no idea what to do with himself. He'd said he would provide the sake for their board games that evening, so he supposed he ought to go to the market and get some. But there he didn't know if he should go for a more expensive, flavorful brand (would that be setting a mood? Or high expectations?") or just a cheap, haphazardly picked bottle (as though it doesn't matter at all? Would it seem like he was just trying to get them drunk?)? Eventually he settled on one, mid-price range bottle, fairly decent flavor, but not too sentimental-looking. It was just alcohol after all and just spending some quality time with his friend. Besides, if he didn't choose soon, Kakashi was going to think he'd stood him up or something, even though this WAS NOT A DATE! He really needed to remember that.

"Kakashi?" Minato stepped quietly into the house. He didn't sense Kakashi's presence immediately, but that wasn't entirely unusual, Kakashi was incredible at masking and sometimes quite literally just forgot to lift his cover.

"I'm here, Minato-sensei," Kakashi meandered into the living room gracefully, a stark contrast to the nerves quivering in his stomach. Minato winced slightly at the honorific.

"How about we drop the titles tonight, Kakashi?" He requested softly, placing the bottle of sake on the counter. "We're friends and…. I'm not actually your sensei anymore."

"Oh," Kakashi let his breath out with a light whoosh sound, then smiled so warmly Minato's tingled all the way down to his toes. "I can do that. Minato."

"Right," Minato murmured. "Well, shall we go to dinner, then?"

"Lead the way," Kakashi responded, gesturing for Minato to leave first.

The two walked in a companionable, though slightly nervous, silence on their way to the sushi restaurant. They (read Minato) were greeted by several passing shinobi, made polite small talk, and then continued on their way, so it took a bit longer than anticipated for them to actually reach their destination.

"Ah, Hokage-sama, we have the table you requested set up in the back," the host just inside the entrance to the restaurant greeted them gracefully. He took two menus as well as the drinks menu and gestured for them to follow him. Kakashi pressed his lips together firmly, waiting for the moment the host left them to accost Minato. The blond knew from the look on Kakashi's face that he was about to get the third degree.

"You reserved a table?" Kakashi gave Minato an incredulous look, causing a reluctant flush to spread across the other man's cheeks.

"No! I just called to ask if they would have any space available on a Friday night," he shot back, trying to cover up their host's inference lest Kakashi be uncomfortable from it.

"And then specified to save the table in the back?" Kakashi now just wanted to prod the blond man into an even more adorable reaction than simply the reddened cheeks.

"Of course I did!" Minato responded swiftly, a little indignant. "So you have no excuse to inhale your food or keep your mask on the entire meal."

This was a more direct response than what Kakashi had bargained for, and he felt his own face heat up quickly.

"Oh."

"Yeah, 'oh,'" Minato reached across their small table to bat the side of Kakashi's head. "I prefer to watch your whole face, it's much better than just one eye."

Kakashi was too stunned by this admission to jump away from Minato's hand and also failed to notice that it remained beside his head for just a heartbeat longer than was generally socially acceptable for a playful swat. Instead, he slowly pulled his mask down his nose, flicking his eye up to look sheepishly at Minato, his lips quirked ever so smoothly into a crooked leering pout.

Minato couldn't help staring, that look, a single, sultry black eye staring straight into his soul; he had to pause to catch his breath again. Yeah, this dinner was a bad idea. There would be no sake for him if Kakashi kept looking like _that_.

"So," Minato coughed, trying to clear his head (student, student, STUDENT, you're the HOKAGE, he's so YOUNG).

"So…" Kakashi responded, drawing out the word, scratching the back of his head, and trying not to be disappointed that Minato didn't leap across the table to kiss him. He'd been testing out those seductive faces in the mirror ever since he got home from beating up Tenzo and Yugao!

Minato forced an awkward chuckle, searching frantically in his brain for a conversation starter.

"I bet the Akimichis have no idea what kind of trouble they're asking for tonight," he started, figuring that would be a safe topic.

Kakashi's brow furrowed minutely as he processed the abrupt change in topic. He held in a dejected sigh, Naruto was always Minato's back-up subject whenever he felt anxious about the tension in a room. Therefore, Minato was clearly uncomfortable being alone with Kakashi in this situation. Coincidentally, Naruto happened to be one of Kakashi's favorite topics as well, so at the very least, they could still share a delicious meal and talk about their favorite pre-genin. And besides, there would be plenty of further opportunity for blatant flirting once alcohol was involved later.

"I thought the world would end that night you said Naruto could have Kiba sleepover," Kakashi couldn't suppress a shudder at reliving that memory.

"Imagine having that whole class."

"You better not EVER do that to me, Minato! I swear I will leave on a 6 month mission before breakfast."

"How do you even entertain that many kids? I have enough trouble with one."

"Simple: give them a ball of string and tell them not to tangle it."

"They're not cats, Kakashi!"

"Roughly the same attention span."

"So you'd put twenty 5 year olds in a room with a single ball of string?"

"No one ever said I would be a good teacher."

"You could be a good teacher. You have potential."

"I wonder what grass tastes like."

"You're one to talk about attention spans. I think goldfish have longer ones than you."

"Hmm, did you say something? I was considering how many courses to order. It is your treat tonight?"

"Kakashi!"


	10. Shy Shogi Shots

A/N - Thanks for the patience, guys, and once again, wonderful reviews :) it's really nice to get such constant feedback! this chapter was much better for me to write than the last one, so hurray! As always: Enjoy!

Kakashi practically fell against the door, his breath coming out in a gust strong enough to rustle the pages of a book sitting on the counter, and rubbed his hands roughly against his pants. Minato had gotten caught up talking to a group of jounin on their way home from the restaurant; with a single glance, he'd told Kakashi he didn't have to hang around indefinitely and he'd be home as soon as he could.

Their dinner had been actually quite good. The sushi was amazing and, despite the fact that there were no romantic advances, they'd managed to spend the entire time talking, laughing, bantering, and generally having pleasant conversation. They'd left the restaurant walking close enough together that their arms kept bumping together, Kakashi's shoulder was still tingling with pleasure. Then those jounins had to corner Minato into discussing an ambush during their mission, which, Kakashi supposed, was important and all…

Slowly, he peeled himself away from the door and flicked the lights on. He dug out the shogi board from the bottom shelf of one of the cabinets and set it up on the coffee table, shifting the armchair to the opposite side of the couch in front of the table. He was in the kitchen when the he sensed Minato's chakra appear at the door of the house, hiding a smile, he resumed his task of getting the sake and a couple glasses.

"I see you wasted no time in getting everything set up," Minato observed, shedding his outer jacket as he entered the house.

"I have to take maximize the amount of times I can beat you," Kakashi responded fairly, coming back into the living room with their alcohol.

"Ah," Minato grinned as Kakashi reappeared and set the glasses on the coffee table as well. "The best finale to a great night."

"What, my smiling face?" Kakashi sent Minato a smug smirk, having pulled his mask down.

"Well, perhaps that too, but mostly the sake," Minato chuckled, sitting down on the couch.

Kakashi sent him a pout, lowering his eyelid to emphasis his tease. Minato glanced up at the expression then quickly flicked his eyes back to the glasses and bottle of sake, clearing his throat. Kakashi pressed his lips together to keep a sigh in as he sprawled on the armchair, his legs flipped over one arm and back nudged in the corner of the chair.

"You can have the first move," Kakashi offered, taking a long sip of his sake.

"You're just saying that cuz you know you'll win," Minato pouted, but set his pieces on the board and moved his first pawn, sending a challenging smirk towards Kakashi.

Kakashi just stretched one of his arms in a seemingly awkward position in order to push one of his own pawns forward.

Minato swallowed down half his shot of sake, made his second move, and so the game continued.

"That's cheating, Kashi!" Minato was fighting not to slur as, rather than sit up, Kakashi used one of his toes to nudge a piece on the board, in the process knocking over several others. Minato could feel himself losing a bit of his grip on reality, they were now more than halfway through the bottle of sake and neither one showed signs of slowing down.

"Maa, spoil sport," Kakashi muttered, he was getting downright uncomfortable. It was far too warm in the room and for some reason he just couldn't get his body to stretch in the right way so his muscles wouldn't feel so cramped up. But, Minato looked annoyed enough at the shogi board that he might just shove it all and make them start over. Again. For the third time that night. So, Kakashi took matters into his own hands.

He spun his legs from their position over the arm of his chair to put them on the floor, then stretched his arms far over his head before pulling off the baggy ¾ sleeve shirt over his head. He hated baggy clothing with a passion, if he'd had his way, he would walk around in spandex 24/7 (yet another reason he felt ANBU was the place for him). He tossed the shirt deftly over his head behind the chair, the action had left him sitting straight in the armchair with only his skin-tight ANBU issue sleeveless top on, the mask pooled around the bottom of his neck. He reached easily over the board and put all the pieces back in their respective places before the tempestuous toe take down before glancing up to see Minato's wide-eyed, open-mouthed, red-faced expression.

Minato, for his part, had observed Kakashi's every move very carefully, watching the muscles in his arms stretch, admiring the swirling ANBU tattoo on a very well-toned bicep, catching his breath as the often aloof jounin gave his full attention to their game, his eye sparkling with, well, something anyway, but a happy, mischievous emotion nonetheless. He realized several seconds too late that that eye was staring into his, seeing him inspecting now discernable washboard abs. His face heated up immediately as he fumbled around for something to say.

"Your move, Minato," the silver-haired man murmured in a deep, silky voice that he definitely hadn't been using earlier in the evening.

Confusion fluttered over Minato's features His move for what? He wasn't supposed to be making moves on this particular man, right? Had there been a move made on _him_? And hadn't he just finished his glass of sake?

Kakashi emptied the bottle of sake between the two glasses, his heart thundering in his ears, nervous about what he wanted so badly to do. His hand nearly shook as the last of the sake splashed into his own glass, betraying his nerves, but Minato didn't notice it. The man was frowning intently at the game board. Kakashi sighed, what more could he _possibly_ _do_ to make that thick-headed blond _notice_ him?

"What move?" Minato finally asked, raising his glance from the board to Kakashi, as he took yet another swallow of alcohol.

"The game, Sensei," Kakashi raised a single eyebrow at him, wondering just how drunk the man was.

"I'm not your sensei anymore, Kakashi," Minato sighed, sounding slightly more sober, as he once again turned his attention to their game.

"What were you thinking about?" Kakashi ventured, referring to the way Minato seemingly hadn't understood that Kakashi was telling him to make a move on the board. Minato blushed and hesitated a moment before answering.

"Nothing."

"That's a pretty loaded nothing, Sensei," Kakashi said, frowning at him.

"Don't call me Sensei," Minato practically growled and, inhibitions failing him, reached over the coffee table and pinched Kakashi just above his knee.

"Hey!" Kakashi protested rubbing at the spot on his thigh, but more turned on than he would ever admit by Minato's sudden change in voice.

Minato just shrugged, as if saying 'you deserved it,' and returned to making a delectable over-concentrated expression as he contemplated their board. Kakashi quickly downed the remainder of his sake before practically jumping out of his chair to take both their empty glasses to the sink.

In the kitchen, he ran a now quite obviously shaking hand through his hair and splashed some cold water on his face. There was no way Minato wanted him, not like that. Kakashi found himself almost attempting to pull his hair out of his head, grasping desperately for something to make him feel more in control of himself. This was too much, he would go back in there and tell Minato that he wasn't feeling well, that he was going to bed.

But, then Minato would end up in the bed too, at some point, it was part of their routine, and Kakashi was not at all confident he would be able to keep his hands off the man. In his not-so-sober brain, he almost felt as though he didn't care what Minato's reaction would be, he _just_ wanted to, needed to, kiss him. But, unfortunately, he wasn't quite drunk enough to forget that an unwelcome kiss could mean the end of their friendship, the easy companionable relationship they'd been maintaining these past five years.

Either way, Minato was bound to come search him out in a few minutes, to figure out why he suddenly abandoned the game he was winning. So, Kakashi twisted his hair around his fingers and gave one more tug before letting it spring back into its usual unruly state. He pulled himself away from the sink and back into the living room, abruptly wishing he hadn't.

Minato had slid off the couch and was sitting on the floor in front of the coffee table, his face deliciously pink from the warmth of the room as well as the alcohol. He must have been biting his lip in concentration because the bottom lip was ever so slightly swollen and a shade deeper red than the top. Minato's vivacious blue eyes brightened as Kakashi reentered the room and his entire expression softened into a manifestation of teasing itself.

"Your move, Kakashi," Minato said ever so sweetly, a look of smug pride on his face, as though he knew the torture he was putting Kakashi under and was enjoying it. Well, Kakashi would let him have no such satisfaction.

Rather than plopping back into his chair, Kakashi took the extra stride and squatted to put him at exactly the same level as Minato. Minato wondered vaguely if his silver-haired opponent was upset that he'd managed to take the lead, despite his inebriated state.

"Yes, Minato," he murmured, breath ghosting gently over Minato's face. The sound of two very distinct, rapid heartbeats permeated the air surrounding them. Minato could smell the sake coming from Kakashi's mouth. "My move."

And then, he tasted it.

A/N - ;)


	11. Inexcusable Interruptions

A/N - Weeeeelllll, this is just how it had to go. Try not to kill me yet ;) I do have a plan again though! Chapter 11 for your pleasure this evening (or morning ;)!

For several seconds neither man seemed inclined to move, they were both shocked that their lips had happened to connect, but then all too soon and not soon enough, one set of lips started to move.

The response of the other set was immediate and in no time at all, their mere physical connection turned into a surprisingly chaste kiss, until Minato allowed his mouth to open just enough to slip his tongue out.

Kakashi practically moaned at the sensation of Minato's tongue tracing his lips. Minato, in turn, took the opportunity to delve his tongue into the other's mouth. Their tongues met softly, dancing, playing hesitantly around each other, someone gasped breathlessly. Minato groaned as he realized there were fingers weaved into his hair, tugging just enough that it added to his arousal rather than feeling as though it was cliché and playacted. He felt his own hands move to trace the outline of taut muscles through a skin tight shirt, and as his fingers touched the velvet skin of Kakashi's shoulders he felt a noise come from his throat that he wasn't sure had ever been defined.

In response, Kakashi's hands pushed into his hair more fiercely, a deep growl reverberating through his chest. They were too close together for the small awkward space they were, in between the coffee table and the couch, but nowhere near close enough to what either of them wanted. Somehow, they maneuvered their bodies to stand up, hands on each other, tongues tangled together, and then their chests lay flush against each other, lining up the rest of their torsos. As soon as a certain part of their anatomy pressed together in such a way that had both men make unintelligible noises, they sprang apart.

From opposite sides of the room, Kakashi and Minato stared at each other. Both were panting, both their faces flushed, both barely concealing their arousal, and both seemed entirely uncertain where they were supposed to go from here.

"I…" Kakashi started, his voice almost cracking as he tried to make a coherent thought.

Minato just held up a single hand and shook his head. He bent over and put both hands on his knees, breathing deeply, as though he were trying to ward off a panic attack. Within seconds, Kakashi was next to him.

"Are you alright?" Kakashi asked softly, having been far more personally familiar with anxiety issues than he'd like to admit.

"Fine," Minato breathed out, voice sounding tight and constricted. Kakashi pressed a hand onto his back, rubbing soothing circles into it, as Minato had done so many times for him. After a few long moments, Minato straightened up again and turned slightly so he could face Kakashi; he reached a hand up to caress the copy nin's face.

"Kakashi –"

"Hokage-sama!" A loud knock reverberated through the house from the front door. The spell was broken between the two men immediately, though reluctantly. Kakashi backed away from Minato's contact and disappeared wordlessly from the living room. Minato instead used his hand to drag it through his hair, mussing it slightly to get himself more presentable to do his never-ending duty.

"ANBU-san, what happened?" Minato pulled the door open, shocked to see the two main executives of ANBU operations standing on his doorstep.

"We regret intruding on your evening, Hokage-sama, however, a matter of most importance has just come up." One of them spoke, a deep male voice through his mask.

"Yes, of course, let's go to my office," Minato responded, knowing that no true ANBU would have any sort of discussion in such a personal setting. Plus, the Hokage's office was specifically designed for transmission of sensitive information.

As the ANBU disappeared from his doorway, he quickly scribbled a note for Kakashi, despite the fact that he knew the man could have heard everything that just happened.

 _Going to my office, probably be a while. Don't wait up. We'll talk in the morning._

 _~Minato_

There was so much more he wanted to say to that silver-haired jounin, but he knew most of that conversation would need to be in person, might as well just let him know he could get some sleep. ANBU problems generally consumed a great deal of time.

He arrived at his office just seconds after the ANBU senior managers did and ushered them inside immediately.

"What happened?" He asked, seating himself behind his desk.

"The guards in the watch tower noted something in the forest, Rat was ANBU on duty, so he went to investigate. He sent a bird to us with this message," one of the ANBU handed Minato a note. "By the time Tiger got to him, Rat was dead."

Minato glanced down at the note

 _S-rank missing nin, page 32 Bingo Book, lat. 158 E, long. 16 N. Will attempt take-down, send back up._

A short, efficient message, outlining exactly where the missing nin could be found and clearly understanding he could not handle the man on his own, which is very important for any ninja to be able to acknowledge. Unfortunately, he couldn't have held the rogue ninja just a little while longer until that help arrived.

Minato sighed, frustrated, why couldn't these rogue missing nin just leave Konoha alone? What was this guy's business here anyway? He picked the Bingo Book out of his desk drawer to see exactly who they were dealing with. As soon as he flipped to page 32, he groaned internally. Tarou Kenta. A large, dangerous rogue nin with a strong earth affinity and an especially deadly earthquake jutsu which allowed him to control exactly how and where tectonic plates moved.

"I assume he's being watched presently?" Minato asked of the ANBU as soon as he'd finished reading.

"Hai, Hokage-sama, Lion and Tiger are on him now, Snake and Lizard on alert as backup, though at the moment he seems to be more working on a plan than heading in for an attack."

"We best head him off from the beginning then, without making a scene. If he's active now, our best chance to strike him with the least amount of mess is just after sunrise."

"Who will be sent?" One the ANBU asked. Minato frowned, he knew exactly who needed to be sent on this mission, who would make the most sense, but he desperately wished there was another option.

"Who would you recommend, ANBU-san?" He asked of both ANBU officials.

"Hound and Cat have successfully teamed against him in the past. They are both off-duty tonight. This time tell them to take care that he never make another reappearance."

"That's what I was thinking," Minato responded. "Have them both sent to me an hour before sunrise as long as the current ANBU on him maintain control of the situation. If it escalates in any way, send Hound and Cat to me sooner."

"Hai, Hokage-sama," both ANBU bowed and teleported away.

Left alone in his office, Minato folded his arms across his desk and dropped his head onto them, he really needed to drink some water, adrenaline only sobered him up so much.

Kakashi had felt Minato's chakra disappear along with the two ANBU managers at least an hour before he decided to venture back downstairs. He could hardly believe what had happened between the two of them and could only imagine what Minato had been about to say to him. He barely glanced at the note Minato left scribbled on the counter. _We'll talk in the morning_. That part haunted him. He wasn't entirely sure he wanted to remember all this in the morning if it was going to be a difficult talk. A part of him, though, mainly his lips and various parts of his body that Minato had touched, told him that the man _had_ responded to the kiss and damn well at that.

Kakashi sighed and ran his hands through his hair one more time before deciding he might as well heed the command in Minato's note and not bother to wait for the man to return that night. Kakashi, of all people, knew how consuming normal ANBU missions could be, never mind how much ANBU emergencies were. So, he took his time drinking some water (so as not to be hungover for the inevitable talk that was to come), taking a shower, and finally climbing into bed, falling asleep faster than he would have thought possible based on the events that had transpired earlier in the evening.

It seemed like mere minutes later that Kakashi felt the inescapable tug of his ANBU tattoo, summoning him to the Hokage's office just an hour before sunrise.

Minato sat behind his desk with two ANBU operatives, in full uniforms, masks in place, standing at attention in front of him, while the rest of the world was still dark and sleeping.

"Hound-taicho, Cat, last night we had an incident with the missing nin Tarou Kenta and we lost a member of ANBU. I need you both to lure him as far from any village as possible so as to minimize his potential destruction while you assassinate him. Hound-taicho, send one of your summons to me directly should the two of you need back-up. The rest of your mission details are outlined in this scroll. You both have faced him before and won, please make sure you do the same this time."

"Hai, Hokage-sama!" Both of the ANBU responded, bowing. The shorter ANBU with the cat mask and long brown hair teleported away immediately. The taller ANBU with a shock of silver hair, mismatched eyes, and a dog mask simply stood from his bow, and gave the Hokage an empty, desolate stare.

Minato opened his mouth to say something more, try to apologize, tell Kakashi he would have sent someone else if he'd had another choice, but he couldn't seem to find the words. All he wanted was to wrap his arms around that lanky, well-muscled body and whisper softly in his ear that he better take care to come home alive. He searched desperately for the words, anything to say that would make their situation seem alright, hopeful even.

Kakashi teleported away.


	12. Abating Angst

A/N - Not quite sure how I feel about this chap... I'm not sure it quite fits with the rest of the story, but I think it still has some important snippets... So, it's a short one, but the next one should be up tomorrow afternoon, probably, if I don't get distracted. Can't wait to hear what you guys think! Enjoy!

"Hound-senpai?" Tenzo's voice cut weakly through the forest as the two nin ran toward the location listed on their scroll.

"Yes, Cat?" Kakashi responded curtly.

"Is everything okay?" He asked, hesitating slightly, not entirely sure it was his place to be in his senpai's personal business.

"Do I not seem okay?" Kakashi asked, avoiding the direct question.

"You seem upset, Senpai. We're going after an S-rank missing nin, it's dangerous to be so distracted."

"I'm fine, Cat." Kakashi muttered.

"Oh, well, alright then," Tenzo said, backing off. He worried about Kakashi when he got evasive like this. Either it meant he would be unnecessarily bloody on the battlefield or he would get home chakra depleted; sometimes both. He really hoped his senpai was telling him the truth.

The two leapt though the forest, dropping their chakra masks every now and then to lure the Tarou Kenta to follow them away from the village. They would also sometimes chuck a kunai or exploding tag behind them as well, to keep up the pretense as though it were imperative no one followed them. After several miles, they could feel his chakra following theirs.

Kakashi hid a grin behind his mask. If there had to be one way to avoid feeling the emotional pain he felt crushing inside his chest from Minato sending him on a mission _immediately_ after they'd shared a far too enjoyable make-out session, then this was the way he wanted to go. The pain of rejection that was gripping his heart at that moment was just too much to bear, and he knew he wouldn't be able to handle the aftermath well at all. He could only imagine the way his life would fall apart when (or if) he returned from this mission. Minato wouldn't be able to look him in the eye, they wouldn't tease each other or have such nice, relaxing evenings together, Naruto would slowly be pulled out of his life because Minato would lose his trust in Kakashi's decision-making skills, and obviously they could never sleep in the same bed again. He could feel the stabbing pains all over his body and it was worse than anything that had physically ever happened to him. So, he decided he was going to go down fighting or die trying. He'd always had a soft spot for suicide missions anyway.

Every intuition in Minato's gut was telling him that sending Kakashi on such a dangerous mission so quickly after their delightful, although confusing, encounter was a horrible idea. He'd just needed it to be one day later, or one day earlier that the stupid rogue nin showed his ugly mug. And, as a result, Minato was now both hungover and irritable enough to kill the next person who walked into his office. Well, really, Minato didn't kill anyone that day. Jurou had come in to help organize the office until he realized how miserable the Hokage was and sent him home.

Minato meandered aimlessly around his house for a while, trying to remember the feel of Kakashi's lips, his tongue, his whole body pressed against him. Then he shook his head to clear it, half a bottle of alcohol and a sleepless night were not exactly a promising start for any day, never mind the fact that he was going to have to pick up his boisterous son in a few hours and explain to him that he'd sent his favorite niisan on a perilous mission in the middle of the night. Minato suppressed a shudder at the thought of how angry and upset his son was going to be as he wearily climbed the stairs.

He fell onto his bed and immediately formed his blanket cocoon to get some sleep. Kakashi had better return as soon as possible completely scratch-free.

"Senpai!" Tenzo hissed through his faceguard, trying to contact his team leader.

"What?" Kakashi's harried voice hissed through the static of Tenzo's reception.

"What's our plan?" He asked, matter-of-factly. Their whole journey so far Kakashi had refused to admit something was bothering him, but he was usually never this difficult to get a decent schematic out of.

"Who says we need a plan?" Kakashi's voice came back through to Tenzo, though it reassured the young mokuton user not at all. That smirking, slightly psychotic voice was the same one that led to the infamous ambush massacre of the Green Valley Mission, a tale often told to the newest ANBU recruits when warned about what could happen if they let their emotions get in the way of their duty. 43 foreign nin brutally murdered within 12 minutes. There had been no grace, no finesse, no forethought, and it had left the 5-man team literally as much as figuratively drenched in blood. It was one of the main missions that had earned Kakashi the nickname "Cold-Blooded Kakashi." Tenzo most definitely did not want to catch a repeat performance, he'd had front row seats for the first show.

"We need a plan, Senpai," Tenzo hissed as forcefully as he dared through their communication system.

Tarou Kenta, the rogue nin, had followed them out to a sufficiently secluded area so they would be able to take him down without threat to theirs or any of the surrounding villages. Now, the man was seeking them out, the ground rumbling ominously beneath them as they worked to conceal their presence. His patience was quickly running out, both Kakashi and Tenzo could feel the tremors deep in their bones.

"We could just follow our guts," Kakashi murmured silkily, appearing on the tree branch just behind Tenzo.

"What the hell happened last night, Senpai? There's no way we can beat him again with you so distracted? Think of Naruto, if no one else! How would he feel if you died on a mission because you were too distracted to make a simple plan?!" Tenzo spat angrily, but quietly, whirling around to confront the man behind him.

Kakashi opened his mouth for a retort, but saw only the bright blue eyes of his favorite toddler in mind's eye. Tenzo had a point. Even if his relationship with Minato was effectively ruined, Naruto couldn't get caught in the middle. Minato would not send Kakashi off to die without letting Naruto say goodbye to his second favorite person in the world. But, something else nagged on his brain from what Tenzo said.

"Again?" Kakashi asked, tilting his head to the side.

"Yeah, this is the guy from that mission with the scroll hidden in the mountain," Tenzo frowned, Kakashi was usually pretty good at remembering what S-ranked nin they fought before. "We were able to defeat him to get to the scroll, though at the time, we didn't kill him."

Kakashi cursed under his breath, it all made so much more sense now.

"That's why Minato-sensei couldn't send anyone else," he breathed, mentally slapping himself on the forehead. Sometimes his emotions where that man was concerned really did blind him.

"Of course, the Hokage needed us, specifically, to go on an extremely dangerous mission with absolutely no preparation time for a _reason_!" Tenzo, on the other hand, resisted the urge to bash Kakashi's brains in his thick head. "We are the only ones who have _ever_ outsmarted him before!"

That's when the ground beneath them shook violently enough to split the tree they were standing on right down the middle.

"When are you brats going to come out AND PLAY WITH ME?!" The large man they had been followed rumbled, his entire body seemed to be helping with the impending earthquake. And on his shout, the whole forest seemed to be shaking.

"So, the plan, Senpai?!" Tenzo nearly squeaked as they tried to keep hidden while finding any sort of stable ground. Kakashi reached up and scratched his head, remembering once again the problems of letting your emotions run away with you on the battlefield; more specifically, what happens when you realize suddenly, that you don't want a particular mission to turn out to be suicidal.

"Ah…."


	13. Questionable Qualms

A/N - Ahhh! I really did intend to have this chapter up yesterday, but then life happened... All of the reviews made me smile and I'm so glad you guys are liking how the story is coming. :D So, here's the next part! Enjoy!

"Where's Kakashi?" were the first words out of Naruto's mouth as soon as he and Minato left the Akimichi's compound.

"I had to send him on a mission, Naruto-kun," Minato said, wincing as the words even came out of his mouth.

"He didn't even come say goodbye?" Naruto's lip was practically already wobbling.

"He didn't have time, bud, I had to send him before the sun came up," Minato quickly explained. "It was a very urgent, important mission."

"You promised he would be home for my birthday," Naruto mumbled. "He promised he would too."

"I still keep that promise, and so does Kakashi," Minato said, crouching down to look right at Naruto's eyes. "This will be a short mission. If everything goes well, he should be home within a day or two."

"Oh," Naruto's expression relaxed slightly more. "Ok, then."

"Ok," Minato stood back up and clasped his hand into Naruto's as they continued their walk back home. "So what did you and your friends all do last night? I hope you were well behaved for the Akimichis."

"Well, the whole way we were walking, Sakura-chan and Ino kept throwing things at me. Then Shikamaru told me to stop yelling at them cuz that would just make them keep doing stuff to make me mad. But Kiba and Akamaru kept calling me a baby cuz I wouldn't throw stuff back at them cuz they're girls, and…."

Minato toned out Naruto's story, Chouji's mother had said the sleep-over party had gone well, so he knew he wouldn't have to scold Naruto for anything serious. But, still, he took care to nod at all the right times and shake his head in sympathy whenever Naruto's voice rose indignantly. Really, though, his mind was far away, hoping that Kakashi and Tenzo were faring alright against the rogue nin.

As soon as they arrived back home, Minato had Naruto put his things away, shower, and take a nap, as he was sure the boy had barely slept at all through the night. Naruto did all of this without complaint, he was exhausted after needing to prove himself to his classmates for such an extended period of time.

After hearing nothing but the sound of his own breathing for several minutes, Minato allowed himself to go peek into Naruto's room. He smiled softly, the boy had pretty much passed out on top of his blankets on the bed. Taking care not to disturb him, Minato pulled another blanket to cover the toddler, kissed the top of his head, and returned to the kitchen.

If things had been in any way normal between himself and Kakashi, Minato probably would have gone to take a nap for himself or at least have started working on some food for a late lunch/early dinner. As it was though, Minato couldn't calm his brain down. Even the slightest thought of the young ANBU captain had his heart racing, both from fear about the mission he'd sent him on and the events that had actually happened between them. So, Minato nursed a steaming mug of tea between both hands as he sat at the counter and thought about exactly what he was going to say to the jounin on his return.

To start with, Minato practically had a panic attack directly following their kiss. He didn't know what the trigger was, whether it was anxiety about what could happen between them and their current friendship or if it was more closely tied to his position as Hokage and his anticipated dread of how the villagers and the council might react to a relationship between the two. As he breathed in the tea, Minato decided it was the latter. Kakashi had kissed him first, kissed him back, tugged on his hair, and had been making sexual faces towards him their entire night. There was no way the copy nin didn't want a potential relationship with Minato. The alcohol couldn't possibly have affected him _that_ much.

So, the problems staring him straight in the face were two: how to actually bring it up with Kakashi without Naruto interrupting or the silver-haired nin being evasive and the second issue, how to deal with the effects of them being in a romantic relationship, rather than the odd domestic-type one they had which the village just seemed to accept. Well, those were just the main questions, there were hundreds more that chased each other around Minato's brain quite insistently.

The rest of the weekend was over far too quickly yet not soon enough for Minato. He was anxiously waiting the completion of Kakashi and Tenzo's mission yet dreading having to face the ANBU captain still without any sort of plan. His best guess was to make Kakashi stay up past Naruto's bedtime, force tea on him, and somehow the right words would just come to him.

Naruto, on the other hand, slept the entire day on Saturday, then spent the majority of Sunday working on his homework and making elaborate plans for his birthday so it would be even cooler than Chouji's sleepover.

By Sunday evening though, Minato was incredibly on edge; now he was starting to worry about the outcome of the mission. Kakashi rarely took more than a day to complete any assassination as soon as he'd formulated his plan, so Minato had been quite sure the nin would be home by noon at the latest.

Sunday night passed in a flurry of sleepless nightmares, so badly that Minato was up before the sun, obsessively watching the forest for any signs of ANBU returning. As he sat behind the desk in his office, he was suddenly all too aware that he had no recollection of how he'd gotten there. Iruka-sensei would have called though if Naruto wasn't in class, so that was one action accounted for. He grimaced at the stack of paperwork that he also realized was sitting in front of him, but lightened his expression to a smile as he saw the steaming mug of tea.

"Hokage-sama!" An ANBU appeared in the room in front of Minato.

"Yes, ANBU-san," he responded quickly standing up.

"Snake and Lizard have returned with Hound-taicho and Cat, they have been brought directly to the emergency room. Their mission is complete, Tarou Kenta is dead," the ANBU reported.

"Thank you ANBU-san," Minato breathed out, his heart clenching painfully. As soon as the ANBU disappeared, Minato sank to the floor. Kakashi was home, Kakashi was in the emergency room, but that meant he was still alive.

In another flurry of movement, Minato had disappeared from the Hokage Tower.

"Where is Hatake Kakashi?" Minato appeared immediately in front of the reception desk at the hospital.

"Ah! Hokage-sama!" the receptionist jumped slightly, stood to bow, then started shuffling papers around on her desk.

Minato stood up to his full height so he could lean over the desk and forcefully slam his hands onto her papers.

"Hatake. Kakashi," Minato hissed, shocked at the malevolence in his voice, but completely unafraid to use it. "Where. Is. He?"

The receptionist practically squeaked at his sudden intrusion of her space. "ICU Room 334."

Minato was gone before she managed to get her breathing back under control.

Slowly, Minato pushed open the door to ICU Room 334, he could hear the voices of medic nins and didn't want to interrupt if they were in the midst of saving Kakashi's life. But as he listened, he noted it was mostly just talking about vital signs, which were good, Kakashi was still alive.

"Hokage-sama," one of the medics looked up at him without shock. She was one who worked with Kakashi pretty regularly when he got chakra depleted, she knew it would only be a matter of time before Minato was in the room.

Minato nodded to her briefly before taking in the rest of his surroundings.

The two beds in the room were both taken. Kakashi in one bed, Tenzo in the other, both looking far too peaceful and delicate for the position they were in. Both had multiple limbs wrapped with chakra-infused encasements, used for helping bones set. Minato's jaw tensed as he caught the corner of a dark bruise spilling from Kakashi's cheek and disappearing under the hospital sheets.

"How bad are they?" He asked, finally, moving to sit in the chair nearest Kakashi bedside.

"Well," the medic who had first greeted him started. "They both have multiple bone breaks and fractures, almost as if their bodies were used as the epicenter for an earthquake. Kakashi-san is, of course, almost completely depleted of his chakra, and Tenzo-san doesn't have much more. Many cuts, scrapes, and bruises, as though getting hit by rocks or branches while running. They'll recover, but should be off missions for at least two months, pending recovery physicals."

"Thank you, Kume-san," Minato murmured, relaxing now that he knew his Kakashi would be ok.

"We will keep them in this induced coma state for 24 hours to allow for the maximum potential of bone healing without movement. There were some pretty difficult breaks to set."

Minato just continued nodding, his face fixed on the slow, gentle pulse flickering in Kakashi's throat. Kume patted his back gently and the medic team left the room. Minato felt a few tears leak out from the corners of his eyes and, without warning, he was practically bawling, pressing his face into Kakashi's sheets. He blamed it half on relief and half on not sleeping for over 48 hours.

As soon as he'd managed to calm himself down, it was a difficult battle not to crawl up and snuggle under the covers with the silver-haired nin. He didn't want to hinder any healing processes though, so he managed to stay put, scooting his chair as close to the bedside as possible, so he could comb his fingers gently through the tangled silver hair. It was surprisingly soft to touch; it practically felt like running his fingers through silk. If silk had leaves, twigs, and knots interspersed throughout it….


	14. Weakened Wakeup

A/N - Another shorter chapter, but hopefully plenty of sweet moments to keep all of my lovely reviewers and readers happy ;) Enjoy!

When Kakashi woke up, the first thing he felt was stiff and numb. The next thing he felt was pain. It was only from training to be a ninja his entire life that he managed not to start screaming incoherently. He took a couple breaths, as deep as he could manage without feeling like he was about to break his newly healed ribs, and slowly blinked his eyes open. It took him a few tries, but eventually he got the color picture in, thankful that one of the medics had thought to cover the sharingan (sometimes they didn't, and that gave him some pretty terrible headaches waking up from chakra depletion). He rolled his head to one side and felt his heart clench in relief at seeing Tenzo on the bed next to him, also sluggishly making his way back to reality.

"Hey, Tenzo," his voice cracked, sounding dehydrated as though he hadn't used it in days.

"Next….. Time…. Senpai," Tenzo began, sounding just as creaking. "You better…. Have a plan."

"I'll do my best," Kakashi grinned under the blanket that had been pulled up to his nose.

Tenzo just smirked in response, then winced as the movement jostled his collarbone. He frowned slightly, making note of it, apparently that had been broken too.

"Any idea how long we've been out?" Tenzo asked, assuming Kakashi had been awake a bit longer than him.

"Nope, just woke up," he responded, glancing out the window. Based on the height of the sun in the sky, it was early afternoon. There was also a lack of weekend bustle you could usually hear beneath the windows in the hospital, so it was a weekday. That was about as much as Kakashi could infer.

"Ah," Tenzo sighed, deducing the same things as Kakashi and being slightly disappointed that he didn't know more. The last thing he remembered was animating a wood clone as a distraction so Kakashi could get behind Tarou with chidori. But then, all of a sudden, it had felt like his whole world was imploding, every bone in his body was breaking, every vein felt as though it was rupturing, and his brain felt rattled to his core. Everything that happened after that was merely a collection of blurs in his memory. Kakashi yelling, Tarou writhing on the ground before dying, Kakashi sobbing as he and Tenzo tried to support each other enough to get back to Konoha, finally blacking out once he saw ANBU uniforms moving towards them.

"Well, well, looks like you troublemakers have finally returned from the dead," a medic pushed open the door, happily noting that her two charges were awake and able to move, to some extent anyway. She stopped by Kakashi's bed first, consulting his chart.

"How long have we been out?" Kakashi asked, watching her.

"We put you both in a coma for 24 hours, you had some very extensive internal damage we needed to fix up. And you've been asleep for another day on top of that," she informed them as she worked through Kakashi's checkup, scribbled some numbers on his chart, and moved on to Tenzo.

"So, that would make it Tuesday afternoon, then?" Tenzo ventured as the medic nin pressed her stethoscope to his chest.

"Mmhmm, thereabouts," she responded.

"I guess our mission report is late," Tenzo sighed, shooting a glare at Kakashi.

"Maa, I'll talk to Minato-sensei, I think we've got a reasonable excuse," Kakashi sighed attempting to find some comfortable position on his bed.

"Speaking of our Hokage," the medic said, finishing with Tenzo and focusing on his charts. "He's barely been out of this room since you got here. We pulled a couch in here for him and Naruto to sleep on. We could barely keep that little brat out of your bed."

The medic pointed out the rumpled blankets on a couch pushed into the side of the room and Kakashi felt another deliciously warm smile accompanied by a soft blush bloom on his face. It made him feel indescribably happy that they had been by his bedside while he was passed out. Deep in the recesses of his mind, though, he also felt a lingering guilt at how close both he and Tenzo were to not coming home at all for this mission.

"Now that you're both awake though, would you like to stay in the same room? We did have do have an open one just across the hall," the medic offered to them as she turned back to face them from the open doorway.

"What do you think, Senpai?" Tenzo asked, looking to the silver-haired nin.

"We can stay together if you like," Kakashi shrugged, but there was a certain gleam in his eye. "Yugao will definitely be in to visit though, and you know what almost happened the last time she visited when you were injured…."

"I'll take a separate room," Tenzo said quickly, face flushing. Kakashi just smirked, he loved Tenzo dearly as a friend and a comrade, but he had his reasons. Number one: he wasn't quite sure if he was ready to talk to Minato about what had happened between them (and he certainly wouldn't get the chance with Naruto in the room), but he knew Minato would be more himself with being alone. Number two: Tenzo'd had such an obvious crush on Yugao for the past year it was driving Kakashi crazy, especially since Yugao had been crushing on _him_. So, he'd send Yugao off to Tenzo's room with a pat on the back and the quick acknowledgement that he knew about her crush and was not remotely interested and then those two could finally tamp down on that sexual tension. Damn teenagers.

Minato hated having to go to the Hokage Tower while Kakashi still hadn't woken up. He would have brought his entire desk into that hospital room if it would have fit. As soon as 4 o'clock rolled around, he teleported to the academy to pick up Naruto.

"Can we go to Kakashi?" Naruto asked as soon as he raced up to his father.

"Yup, you ok if we teleport there?" Minato asked, reaching down to pick the toddler up. Naruto just nodded and wrapped his arms around Minato's neck.

In a gust of wind and a swirl of leaves, the pair were standing in front of the hospital. Minato didn't even stop at reception as he made his way to Kakashi and Tenzo's room. As soon as he opened the door, he set Naruto on the ground and the little blond raced to the bedside to see if Kakashi was better yet.

"Easy, bud," Minato reminded him softly, closing the door behind him. "We don't want to force him to wake up."

"I know," Naruto sighed and leaned his chin on the blankets of the bed.

Minato frowned as he took in the surroundings of the room. Something had changed. He glanced at the bed next to Kakashi and his eyes widened. Tenzo was gone. He was just about to rush out of the room to find out what had happened to Tenzo. He knew Kakashi would be ruined if he'd died, the silver-haired nin liked to pretend to be aloof, but he knew the copy nin cared a lot about the mokuton user.

"He just moved across the hall, Minato-sensei," Kakashi's voice came from the bed and Minato's brain froze in its tracks.

"You're awake!" Naruto exclaimed and Minato barely got his senses back in time to grab the boy before he jumped on the still recovering ANBU captain.

"You're so loud, pipsqueak, no one could sleep through you," Kakashi grinned, slowly forcing himself to sit up. One of the medics had helped him change into the sleeveless ANBU top Minato had left folded up on the couch for him, so he didn't have to worry about the blankets falling away from his face. Minato anxiously tried to rearrange the pillows to alleviate Kakashi's effort as much as possible.

"How do you feel? Do the medics know you're awake? Do you need painkillers?" Minato started running through questions too fast while Naruto just shed his backpack on the floor and crawled up on to the bed.

"I'm fine, Sensei, take a breath," Kakashi murmured, lifting one arm cautiously so Naruto could snuggle underneath it.

"I thought I told you not to call me sensei anymore, Kakashi," Minato smiled, sitting on the chair closest to the bed.

"Sorry, Minato," Kakashi blushed hard, not daring to meet the other man's eyes.

"Eh, nii-san, when can you come home?" Naruto asked, making Kakashi blush even darker.

"Ah, probably not for a few days, Naruto-kun," he responded, amazed that the pile of warmth pressed against his side didn't actually hurt more than it did.

"Oh," Naruto sighed. "It's no fun when you're not home."

"Hey!" Minato protested, swatting gently at Naruto's head. "I'm plenty of fun."

"You're more fun when Kakashi nii-san is home," he argued, narrowing his eyes at his father.

"Well, the medics have grounded Kakashi for 2 months anyway, so he'll be home at least that long," Minato admitted, glancing at Kakashi's reaction as he said it. Surprisingly, Kakashi's shoulders seemed to release a bit of tension.

"Good," Naruto murmured contentedly.

"Ichiraku for dinner?" Kakashi suggested hopefully, looking up at Minato.

"I will check with the medics," the blond sighed, giving in to the puppy dog expression he was getting.

"Tell me the story of you mission?" Minato heard Naruto ask as he closed the door to Kakashi's room. He hesitated by the door to hear what Kakashi's response would be.

"Not tonight, kiddo. Another time, ok?" Kakashi's voice answered. "Why don't you tell me about school?"

"Well…"

Minato smiled and made his way to the medic's station to inquire about Kakashi's chances of keeping down a meal of ramen.


	15. Happy Homecoming

A/N - Sorry guys, life keeps getting in the way... Long chap here, but I think most of you will find it satisfactory ;) And again, your reviews mean the world to me :) Happy Friday!

The rest of the week passed by in a blur of sleep, medic nins, and a blond toddler snuggler for Kakashi. As nice and relaxing as it was, by the time Friday afternoon rolled around, Kakashi was more than ready to be out of the hospital. He could sort of walk on his own, though the medics frowned at him for it, but at least he finally could eat, drink, talk, and turn his head without feeling a thousand stabbing needles.

"Ready to go home, Kakashi?" One of the medics asked him after he'd finished dressing.

"Maa, not that I don't love it here," he said, shooting her an eye smile. She just gave him a cheeky grin back, the medics were just as happy with him leaving as he wanted to be out of there.

"Ah, Hokage-sama," she easily greeted the blond man walking into the room. She handed him the scroll she'd been holding. "These are the rules specifying exactly what Kakashi-san _shouldn't_ do and for how long. He'll be expected back here in a month for his healing progress to be checked and well evaluate further from there."

"Of course," Minato said, smiling as he accepted the scroll and quickly skimmed over its contents. "Thank you very much for putting up with him!"

"Hey," Kakashi protested dejectedly.

"He's not even our worst customer," the medic nin just laughed, shrugging it off as she walked out of the room.

"Ready to go?" Minato asked, opening his arm for Kakashi to lean on him. "Naruto said he would have dinner ready for us and I'm terrified the kitchen will be destroyed."

" _I'm_ the one who taught him to cook," Kakashi responded, pseudo-haughtily. Then he considered his statement and chuckled. "So, we'll be having burnt cheese. But, the kitchen will survive."

Minato just kept the smile on his face as he felt Kakashi's body heat merge with his own, Kakashi's weight lean against his.

"Do you want any of this get-well stuff?" Minato asked, nodding to a couple vases of flowers and various child-coloring pictures.

"Nah," Kakashi rested his head on Minato's shoulder, knowing the other man wouldn't push him away when he was still injured. Softly, he murmured, "let's go home."

Minato shivered slightly at the sensation of Kakashi's voice reverberating on his shoulder and the other man's breathe ghosting into his neck. He also felt a warm blush creep up his face at the fact that Kakashi had referred to _his_ house as home. Kakashi was pretty well known for saying he hadn't really had a home since his father's suicide, but clearly, something had changed.

Kakashi normally was not a fan of being manhandled, he was perfectly capable of taking care of himself, thank you very much. But, today was different, he could feel Minato's warmth and he welcomed it. He would keep as close to Minato as possible, every part of him that was touching the other man simmered in contentment. Not that he could exactly put it into words or express it to Minato without fear of rejection. But hey, he was injured, he could milk it, just this once.

Rather than say anything else or let an uncomfortable silence overtake them based on the things they still hadn't said after a certain kissing incident… Minato formed his signals one handed and the two of them were teleported out of the hospital.

"Kakashi nii-san!" Naruto shouted, running full speed to where Kakashi and Minato had appeared. "I made grilled cheese for dinner!" He mumbled into the copy-nin's legs, which was where he'd happened to slam his face in his excitement to hug his friend.

Kakashi blushed and leaned heavier on Minato as Naruto's attack necessitated adjusting his balance quite a bit.

"That's great, kid, can't wait to try some," Kakashi grinned, awkwardly patting Naruto's head, but wincing since his body was still aching everywhere.

Minato felt the increase in weight on him and tried to shoo Naruto off.

"Alright, we'll eat a quick dinner and then it's off to bed for Kakashi."

"Hurray!" Naruto jumped delightedly away from Kakashi and ran into the kitchen to get his prized dinner.

"Are you ok?" Minato asked, when Kakashi's weight didn't shift back after Naruto's disappearance.

"Yeah," Kakashi struggled to pull himself away from Minato, but the older man held onto him even tighter.

"Don't push it," he warned. "They're letting you go far earlier than they should have. Let me help you sit down."

Kakashi nodded and tucked his head back into Minato's shoulder, silver hair tickling Minato's nose. They made their way to the table and Minato pulled a chair out. Kakashi shifted his weight from one leg to the other, unable to hold in a sharp gasp as a couple of his healing bones cracked into place.

"Maybe we should just send you right to bed," Minato grimaced, maneuvering Kakashi into the chair, trying to avoid him putting too much weight onto any part of his body.

"You worry too much, Minato," Kakashi sighed, closing his eyes as he was finally able to lean back in his chair. "I want to eat real food."

"And you don't worry enough about your own health, Kashi," Minato said, more to himself than the young man sitting across from him. Then he added louder, in better spirits, "Besides, I don't consider Naruto's cooking to be real food."

Kakashi heard the first comment and frowned, but decided for now he could only respond to the second one.

"Anything other than hospital food and IV nutrients is real food to me," Kakashi smirked, opening one eye to let it glint at Minato. He would have felt more vindicated though, if Naruto had stepped out of the kitchen with a plate full of golden brown sandwiches instead of the more-charcoal-than-bread mound he was carrying.

"Dinner!" Naruto practically sung as he placed the plate in the middle of the table.

"Wow, bud, these look awesome!" Minato said, carefully avoiding scrunching up his nose from the way they smelled vaguely of burnt plastic as well as burnt cheese.

"You did everything I said, right?" Kakashi asked Naruto hesitantly, also noting the smell and watching the stack apprehensively, as though it were about to come alive and eat him. Naruto, completely oblivious to anything other than the cheese in front of him, just nodded.

"You took the slices out of the wrapping before putting them in the sandwiches?" Kakashi continued, still not convinced.

"Yeah," Naruto raised an eyebrow, swallowing a mouthful of sandwich. Kakashi sniffed again surreptitiously.

"Every cheese slice?" Kakashi slowly picked a sandwich from the top of the mound and peeled the top piece of bread backwards. Minato sent a warning glare at him over a mouthful of the charcoal, knowing Naruto might get incredibly defensive.

"There was a wrapping on every slice?" Naruto tilted his head, eyebrows furrowed.

"Yes, Naruto, every slice has plastic over it," he said, tilting his sandwich so Naruto could see the plastic film that had melted inside it.

Coughing and spluttering broke out on the other side of the table.

"Excuse me," Minato choked out, practically jumping up from his chair and running to the bathroom.

"Huh, mine doesn't have any plastic," Naruto scratched his head, seeing the same film on his father's plate as there was in Kakashi's sandwich. "Do you want some of mine?"

Naruto pushed his plate over to Kakashi. The copy just relaxed his face into a soft smile; it was hard to get mad at the kid for messing up a simple recipe, he could just be so darn cute. It wasn't as though he'd never eat food again either, he was sure Minato would shove something disgustingly healthy in his face in a couple hours.

"Well, just a small piece, then," Kakashi sighed, not wanting to completely dishearten the toddler for trying to do something nice for his two most important people. Kakashi ripped off the tiniest, least burned piece of sandwich off of Naruto's plate and ate it quickly. "Delicious!"

"Really?" Naruto face lit up.

"Mmhmm," Kakashi quirked his lips up into a smile, forcefully swallowing his bite of the sandwich.

"You can have more," Naruto said, giving Kakashi the most impressive puppy-dog expression he'd ever seen.

"Ah, actually, Naruto," Kakashi, rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. "Do you mind boiling some water for tea? I could really use some, but not supposed to be walking….. too much…."

Kakashi trailed off as Naruto jumped up and ran for the kitchen with a shout.

"Sure, nii-san!"

Minato stumbled back towards the table, falling into his chair.

"Are you ok?" Kakashi asked, chuckling a little.

"Ugh, that was so gross. I think I'll stop and get some take-out from Ichiraku after we clean up," he groaned.

"I'll have the eggplant miso," Kakashi offered sunnily.

It took a long couple of hours for Minato and Naruto to clean up the kitchen. With both Kakashi and Naruto settled into their respective beds, Minato snuck out to Ichiraku's. It wasn't incredibly late yet, so the ramen stand was still open and he'd be able to eat a real dinner without getting heartburn. He returned to the house as quickly as he'd disappeared, grabbed a couple pairs of chopsticks, and headed up to his bedroom.

"Hmm, something smells good," Kakashi murmured, rolling over in the bed to greet Minato as he came into the room.

"Do you need help sitting up?" Minato asked, setting the take-out bag on the bedside table. Kakashi shook his head and pushed himself slowly to rest with his back against the wall.

Minato handed over a pair of chopsticks and uncovered Kakashi's bowl first. As he stood, he realized this would be the first time they'd shared a bed after that amazing kiss. Did that make things different now? Would Kakashi be uncomfortable in the same bed? A frown creased Minato's forehead as he considered this, questions and doubts racing through his mind.

He grabbed his own bowl of ramen and chopsticks, then perched on the windowsill to eat, deciding to give Kakashi his own space.

"We should talk," Minato suggested eventually as their excited noodle slurping calmed down. "About, you know, what happened before your mission."

"Yeah," Kakashi responded softly, looking directly at his ramen rather than Minato. "It's ok if you want to forget it ever happened."

"I don't want to forget," Minato responded quickly and sharply.

"Really?" Kakashi glanced up from his bowl. Their eyes met and the tension started to sizzle between them.

"Ah," Minato rubbed the back of his head, now it was his turn to look away. "I, ah… It was…. Good."

Kakashi could feel the other man's uncertainty, hell, he was pretty insecure about this whole situation as well. He played with the edge of the sheets, since he'd finished with his ramen, waiting for the other man to continue.

"It's just that, well, you know, these things…. They get around…. Gossip," Minato paused trying to think of some way to say what was on his mind without it sounding so depressing. "I'm the Hokage, I can't….. Well, the village looks up to me….."

Minato stopped again, he wasn't even entirely sure himself what he was trying to say. He loved that silver-haired bastard, of course he wanted nothing more than to shove his tongue down the young man's throat again. But, what would the village say? The Elders? How would Naruto's friend treat him? Would Kakashi's career suffer?

Kakashi could feel the rejection with every attempt Minato tried. If someone was trying to tell you how much they cared about you and enjoyed your company, it wouldn't be that hard. Especially not for someone as expressive as Minato. Maybe the man had just been horny from the sake, now he was just coming up with excuses so he wouldn't hurt his oldest friend. Kakashi held his breath for a few moments trying to ignore the hurt as Minato kept stumbling over his words. It felt as though his heart might stop beating, his eyes were both burning trying to keep the tears at bay.

"Gah, Kakashi," Minato groaned in exasperation. "What I'm trying to say is life isn't fair and things can't work out like they do in Naruto's stories. There are so many other factors to consider and –"

"But I love you," Kakashi's bare, raw, hurt whisper stopped Minato in his tracks. Kakashi couldn't stop the tear that began to cascade down his cheek. "So much."

Minato was kneeling in front of the other man within nanoseconds, reaching up to caress his face with gentle hands, wipe those forbidden tears away.

"Kashi," he breathed tenderly as Kakashi's hurt eye met both of his. "I didn't know."

Carefully, he inclined his head slightly further to press his lips delicately onto Kakashi's. The other man's lips melted immediately and were pressing back. Slowly, lips parted and tongues explored each other again. The two men were on the verge of delving quickly back to the make-out territory of before, but Kakashi forced his hands to keep themselves out of Minato's hair this time. He pulled himself away.

"How could you have missed it?" Kakashi asked, his voice the barest of whispers.

"I must be blind," Minato conceded, moving closer in order to once again have his lips in their rightful place.

"You were about to reject me," Kakashi pulled away again, before Minato's mouth made contact.

"I didn't realize how you felt," Minato said, sitting back on his heels. "I didn't want your reputation ruined for some hopeless fantasy of mine."

"My reputation?" Kakashi frowned, leaning back against the wall again.

"If the village were to know, or suspect, of something happening between us, they would probably retaliate against me, you, and Naruto. I can't let that happen for my own selfish desire to try something with you."

"But you want me?" Kakashi hesitated, wanting to confirm that childish flare of hope wasn't dead yet.

"God, yes," Minato breathed, nearly moaning. "I've wanted you since I walked in on you singing to get Naruto back to sleep at 2:30 in the morning. Since you've stood at the stove, flipping pancakes whistling, completely oblivious that Naruto and I were standing in the doorway, just watching you. Since I saw you, swinging your legs from our window seat, wrapped around that mug of tea which never leaves your hands. Since you jumped in through the window of my office and sprawled all over my couch, reading Jiraiya's stupid porn books until I gave you a mission. Since you've smiled at me, cared for me, helped me become better than I ever was, been the best friend any person could ask for. You're everything to me Kakashi. You and Naruto. You're beautiful. How could I _not_ want you?"

Kakashi just blinked, Minato's confession coming out at him in such a huge rush of words. Piece by piece, everything came together in his genius mind and a smile crept onto his face.

"Well, we're ninja, right? We can be secretive."

"Are you sure you want this?" Now it was Minato's turn to be certain.

Kakashi didn't say anything, he just gestured for Minato to get into bed. So, Minato undid the bindings on his legs, shed his flak jacket, and climbed in on Kakashi's other side. Kakashi slid back down the wall and curled himself against Minato, head nestled into his chest, arms tucked in next to Minato's side. Minato let one of his own arms wrap around Kakashi, the other let the other hand comb though the silver hair, gently massaging the copy nin's head.

"Yeah," Kakashi sighed contentedly, relaxing against the older man. "I want this every night."

Minato chuckled as his feet tangled with Kakashi's at the end of the bed.


	16. Another Awakening

Hey guys, I know it has been a WHILE and I sincerely apologize…. But, I'm back! I hope I haven't lost you wonderful people, this chapter is for you! Lots of lovey-dovey, homey fluffiness and there's a simple scripted conversation in here that you guys can picture as many kisses and snuggles in as your hearts' desire (I didn't want to be the dictator on it, I tried, but the descriptors just didn't fit in the right way, so use your imagination ;)

I think this story is only going to be about 2 more chapters, so sadly, be prepared for the absence of updates again. But this fic has been a wonderful adventure and your reviews helped so much more than you know. So, thanks again! And I'm sorry again about the extreme lack of updates (classes and exams and finals just really came out of nowhere :P ) Enjoy!

Waking up the next morning seemed somehow caught between the most beautiful dream and the cruelest nightmare for Kakashi. As he felt his dream-world slipping away, he wondered if the events of last night could really be true, if his conversation with Minato had really happened. Slowly though, he realized, that the pain was physical, not heartbreak. The warm mass he was sleeping on was definitely masculine and definitely had Minato's distinct snore. He could still remember every word the other man had said, it wasn't the fleeting impression of a dream, it had existed, it must have happened. He felt his lips pull themselves up into a smile, he was waking from the most beautiful dream then, and maybe things would work out so well that this dream may just become his reality.

At that thought, Kakashi let his eyes open to see the sleeping Minato he was using for a pillow. His smile widened into a grin as he realized he didn't need to hold back on his impulses anymore, so he lifted his head ever so slightly and pressed his lips to the soft indent between Minato's throat and collarbone. Minato gave a soft sleep sigh at Kakashi's gesture.

"Mmm… 'Kashi," Minato murmured. Kakashi tingled all the way down to his toes as he felt the vibration of Minato's voice against his lips. Definitely better than a dream.

Kakashi made to shift his body closer to Minato's, hoping to let his lips do some more exploring, but had apparently very conveniently forgotten that he was pretty badly injured and hissed in pain. That noise woke Minato up completely and the blond man quickly started to sit upright. This movement, since Kakashi was still settled on his chest, led to another gasp of pain where Kakashi was jostled.

"Kakashi!" Minato gasped, letting himself fall back onto the bed again as Kakashi grimaced. "I'm sorry, Kashi-kun, I woke up too fast."

"Really?" Kakashi muttered sarcastically as he let himself relax back into his original position. "Never would have guessed."

"Hey," Minato pouted, but he did bring his finger up to bury them in Kakashi's hair. Kakashi couldn't retain the sigh of contentment that escaped his lips from their gentle massaging movements on his scalp. Minato's tone of voice turned sultry. "Am I forgiven?"

"Mmm, no fair…" Kakashi sighed again, letting his eyes slip closed as he enjoyed the tender caressing. Kakashi's own hand snaked around to fasten loosely onto the hand Minato was resting on his stomach.

Minato smirked at how complacent his student was being; he had always assumed a content Kakashi would act more like a puppy getting his belly rubbed, now the young adult seemed rather more like a cat purring as he stretched in the sun.

After several long minutes spent laying together, soaking in each other's presence and warmth, both men began to hear the telltale noises of a toddler waking up. Minato sighed, really not wanting to move away from his copy nin while Kakashi also sighed knowing that Minato would, in the end, get up.

"Well, it was nice while it lasted," Minato murmured softly.

"But we'll have this again," Kakashi responded quickly. "Right?"

"Of course," Minato softened his expression into an easy smile. "Breakfast in bed for you? Or will you come downstairs with us?"

"I'll be down in a few minutes. You can get Naruto up first though, I don't think I can race him today," Kakashi decided.

"Right."

Even with the decision made, neither man made the slightest inclination to move away from their position.

"Ah, Minato," Kakashi tilted his head up slightly to look at the blond.

"Yes, Kakashi?"

"How's the progress with getting Naruto up?"

"It's going rather well actually. I'm mixing batter for pancakes right now."

"Oh, that sounds nice. I didn't know you could make pancakes."

"Well, I can, not as good as yours of course, but they do the job."

"So, what about my tea? Are you boiling the water now too?"

"Why, yes. Yes, I am Kakashi. I've also already placed the mugs on the counter."

"You know I like my tea real, right? The imaginary kind is fine for parties, but at breakfast, I do need something of more substance."

"…"

"So, oatmeal and tea will be ready by the time I get down?"

"Cheeky little brat."

Carefully, Kakashi made his way down the stairs and into the kitchen where he could hear Minato and Naruto talking animatedly over their breakfasts. He smiled as that sight greeted him as he walked into the kitchen.

"Good morning nii-san!" Naruto greeted happily, jumping down from his stool to pull the other one out from under the counter for Kakashi to sit on. Kakashi just blushed and smiled at the young boy.

"Thanks, Naruto-kun," Kakashi said as he eased himself down onto the stool, using the counter as a support and trying to hold in the laugh as Naruto 'helped' by holding the stool in place for him.

"Are you feeling better?" the toddler asked as he hopped back onto his own stool and finished off his oatmeal.

"Yup, getting there, pipsqueak. I'll be taking you to school again before your birthday," Kakashi replied as Minato set a bowl of oatmeal and mug of earl grey tea in front of him.

"Really? That soon?" Naruto grinned and bounced in his seat. "My birthday is next week already!"

"Mmhmm, speaking of which," Minato began, sipping on his own mug of tea. "What special activity are we going to do for your birthday this year, bud?"

"I talked to my friends about it at Chouji's sleepover!" Naruto became, if possible, even more energetic. "We thought we should keep it a surprise until then!"

"A surprise?" Kakashi asked, turning to look at the boy. "For us?"

"Yeah!"

"Uh, Naruto-kun, generally the birthday boy gets the surprises, not his family," Minato pointed out, frowning slightly, worried that maybe Naruto had somehow been deprived of this birthday tradition.

"I know that," Naruto grumbled, sounding a little irritated. "But my presents will be my surprise. And it'll ruin all my plans if you know about them."

"We could help with your plans," Kakashi offered.

"No!" Naruto exclaimed stubbornly. "My friends and I are making the plans and you guys can't know about them yet."

"It's nothing dangerous, right?" Minato had to check.

"Dad!" Naruto groaned in agitation.

"Ok, ok, Kakashi and I will go along with your plans," Minato conceded, sharing a shrugging glance with Kakashi. They both were thinking along the same lines, how bad could it be? The worst that could happen would be 15 noisy children running rampant around the house for a few hours. They could handle that; maybe not happily in Kakashi's case, but for Naruto, he could deal.

"Good," Naruto said, trying to sound threatening as he hopped off his stool to get his backpack. "And you better not mess it up."

'We'll try not to," Kakashi said, though he was still pretty confused. Naruto generally shared all of his best plans with the silver-haired nin, so what was different about this birthday one?

"Ok, well, we'd better be leaving now to get you to school on time, Naruto," Minato said, dropping his now empty bowl into the sink as well.

"Yup, bye Nii-san!" Naruto said, climbing onto his stool to wrap his arms gingerly around Kakashi's neck in a tentative hug. Kakashi grinned and pressed a kiss onto the boy's forehead.

"Have a great day at school, Naruto-kun," he responded softly, ruffling the boy's hair as he let go and jumped down.

"I'll meet you outside in a minute, Naruto," Minato said as he shooed the boy out the door. He took two steps over to Kakashi, wrapped a hand under the copy nin's jaw, and pressed his lips firmly to Kakashi's in a surprisingly sweet, chaste kiss. Kakashi felt his face flush and as Minato pulled away, his cheeks were also tinged pink. "Well, ah, get some more sleep 'Kashi, I'll have someone come check on you later."

"I don't need anyone to check on me, Minato," Kakashi murmured, slightly dazed by the ease of their kiss.

"I know, but I do."

For that, Kakashi raised both his hands to wrap around Minato's neck and pull him into another, well, not-so-chaste kiss.

"Come on, Dad! We're going to be late!" Naruto shouted, coming back towards the house.

Minato quickly pulled away as Kakashi's arms dropped just as fast from around his neck.

"Yup, and we're on our way now. See you tonight, Kakashi!"


End file.
